JESS: How Many Yellow Eggs?

Game sale numbers are, in general, a secret in Spain. Companies just don’t talk about them. But thanks to Roberto Fraga, we have some numbers about the sales of his Dancing Eggs game—and not only in Spain, but in other European countries and the USA.

Sales numbers are divided in semesters. The publisher HABA reports and pays royalties to the author in this way:

Year   Edition	2003	2004		2005		2006		2007	Total (game units)
	Sem.2	Sem.1	Sem.2	Sem.1	Sem.2	Sem.1	Sem.2	Sem.1
Eiertanz (Germany)	6.224	7.875	8.189	9.814	6.746	7.117	4.777	4.371	55.113
Danse Des Œufs (France)		1.612	3.480	3.613	4.146	5.005	5.391	5.702	28.949
Eierdans (Netherlands)		1.110	824	936	839	1.110	1.094	1.221	7.134
Dancing Eggs (USA)				829	1.361	2.474	3.476	1.658	9.798
La Danza delle Uova (Italy)						42	258	164	464
Danza del Huevo (Spain)							744	728	1.472
Total (game units)	6.224	10.597	12.493	15.192	13.092	15.748	15.740	13.844	102.930

 

Dancing Eggs seems to sell well, even some years after its publication. In almost all countries the game sells better not its first year, but a year later—mouth-to-mouth marketing at work, I think. The game hasn’t had special marketing help or a kinder spiel award.

In France, the game has been an increasing success for almost four years. In 2007, the game even sold better in France than in Germany :-)

These numbers also help us understand the differences between the game business in European countries. Compare the sales in Spain and Germany!

(The graphics are in Spanish, but I think you can understand them easily: Alemania is the Spanish name for Germany, and Holanda is the Netherlands.)

¡Nos jugamos!

© 2008 Jesús Torres Castro

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Comments:

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I wonder if HABA minds those numbers being published this way? I’d love to see more sales numbers from other games...this is great stuff. Posted by Ted Alspach on Jan 16, 2008 at 02:30 PM | #

This is cool info.  But I’m missing one thing: Are these figures in dollars or game units?  In other words, in the first year of its release in Germany (2003), did the game sell 6,224 copies or for a total of $6,224.00?  I’m nearly certain it’s the former, but not sure enough to stake my life on it. pk Posted by Patrick Korner on Jan 16, 2008 at 06:43 PM | #

Oh wait, I found it.  The pie (donut?) chart says at the bottom that a total of 102,930 games have been sold. Holy crap that’s a lot of yellow eggs. pk Posted by Patrick Korner on Jan 16, 2008 at 06:44 PM | #

It’s only a million eggs. Alright, you might have a point. I always wondered where all those rubber chickens came from...this is starting to make sense now. Though I’m not sure I’ve seen any wooden chickens… Posted by Ted Alspach on Jan 16, 2008 at 06:48 PM | #

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