Site-wide sales are sales intended to launch across multiple sister sites (e.g., DriveThruRPG, DriveThruComics, DMsGuild, etc.) with a blanket discount in place over several publisher and creator accounts. Sitewide sales occur annually—always in the same month each year—but their actual dates shift slightly from year to year within that month. Not every sale includes the same types of content: For example, our New Year, New Game sale in January focuses on quickstarts and introductory modules, while our Teach Your Kids sale in December includes only child- and family-friendly games.
Regardless, these sales are promoted heavily across our various social media and newsletter channels. They are essential for many of our partners and a great way to bring new customers to their product lines and also to retain current customers who want to expand their library at a discounted price.
Sales Schedule
| Month | Sale |
|---|---|
| Early January | New Year, New Game occurs in the first half of January. It tends to focus on quickstarts, intro adventures, and “starter pack” bundles for game systems. |
| Early March | GM's Day is one of our three biggest annual sales, with substantial discounts on a huge swath of titles. |
| May | Pathfinder / Starfinder — Throughout the month of May, we host steep discounts and bundles for both Pathfinder and Starfinder products. |
| Late July | Christmas in July is another of our top three biggest annual sales. It usually starts the Thursday before July 25. |
| Late August | Spooky savings on the Cthulhu Mythos and other Cosmic Horrors. |
| All of September: | September System/Setting Sales focus on one or two major game systems or settings for the entire month, with broad sales on all titles for that system or setting. |
| Mid- to Late October: | We generally hold a Halloween Sale in the mid- to latter part of the month. Usually the focus is on Horror titles of some kind. |
| Early November | We hold the Teach Your Kids Sale at the beginning of November. This promotion features child- and family-focused games only. |
| Late November | Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales take place around the U.S. Thanksgiving Day weekend. This promotion has grown over the past few years to challenge GM's Day and Christmas in July as our biggest of the year. We usually have a wide array of titles on sale for the entire weekend, with separate sets of headliner/doorcrasher items at very deep discounts for each of “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday. |
How to Participate in Sitewide Sales
The Opt In or out of site-wide sales tool allows you to make your titles available for inclusion in sitewide sales. Over time, we have made that tool more robust in defining what you’d like to include in promotions, from choosing titles or subcategories to maximum discount levels, and also defining how many days a title must be available publicly before it is eligible for site-wide sales.
Opting in a title does not apply to print-on-demand formats of that title (books, cards, posters, etc.). Opting in for site-wide promotions does not guarantee that your titles will be included in all future promotions. It means that you have given us permission to include your titles if we can use them.
Pricing
Deep Discounts
Partners may opt-in to discounts of up to 80% off. Years of analysis on site promotions have shown that the more deeply you discount a title in the short term (up to about two weeks), the more total revenue you will earn. In fact, the increased revenue your title earns does not result in diminished sales in the long term either. For about a month after the promotion ends the title’s revenue may dip slightly, but afterwards quickly returns to pre-sale averages.
Better yet, you will broaden your reach and add to your customer email list for follow-up targeted marketing, since many people will have purchased your title during the sale. We normally deeply discount only a single title from your catalog, or perhaps a small bundle of related items, but not your entire catalog. We might, for example, include one of your titles at 75% off as a “doorcrasher” special in a major sale, while discounting several other titles in your catalog at 25% off for that same promotional period.
For more information on pricing, feel free to check out our Pricing Part 3 blog post (and also Pricing Part 2).
New Titles
We advise you not to discount your titles within 30 days after their public release so that you can maximize your sales revenue. When a title is first released on the marketplace, customers are generally willing to pay the full price for at least a month or two. For particularly popular titles, sales at this level can go on for many months. When you discount a title in its first 30 days, you lose the opportunity to benefit from purchases made at full price.
More information can be found in our Medium Article, DriveThruRPG & Sister Sites: Promoting During Site-Wide Sales.