D&D Beyond launched in 2017 and is available for Android and iOS. It has many different facets, which makes it very compelling to people who like reading Dungeons and Dragons manuals and campaign guides. All of the major releases by Wizards of the Coast are available to be purchased in digital form and there is a healthy repository of home brew adventures. One of the most interesting aspects is the ability manage your character for a D&D campaign, you can roll the dice and it automatically takes into account modifiers. This is useful for saving throws, attacking, casting spells or even making a history check. The app and all of the services has just been sold to Hasbro for $146.3 million.
The company that used to run the company is called Fandom and they just made a post over on the toolset’s official forums, the D&D Beyond team said the purchase would not change how players use the toolset to run their campaigns. “Wizards of the Coast has no plans to stop supporting D&D Beyond. Ever,” the team said.
“Over the last three years, the royalty paid to Hasbro by D&D Beyond has represented a significant contribution to the fastest growing source of revenue for Dungeons & Dragons,” Hasbro said. That is undoubtedly true, as financial disclosures show that Wizards — and its attached digital properties, including Magic: The Gathering Arena — earned more than $1 billion for the first time in 2021.
What I find interesting is that this is a coming home party for D&D Beyond, they are joining Hasbro, which also runs Wizards of the Coast, which publishes the vast majority of the official D&D guides, campaigns and modules. Wizards has become a massive part of Hasbro’s overall earnings since the launch of 5th edition D&D in 2014. With an operating profit of $547 million in 2021, Wizards’ business unit accounted for 72% of Hasbro’s operating profit for the year. Hasbro basically runs the DND market now, both in print and digital.
On a personal level. I use the app all the time. I play DND off and on with a group of friends, they all use paper and pencils, and I just use my smartphone to manage hit points, dice rolls, equipment and inventory and skill checks. I have never been good at math and the app really makes the mechanics easier, so I can better focus on good RP.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
