Games
For RPG designers: which quickstarts and actual plays sell the core book and the adventures after it.
An indie tabletop RPG sells a core rulebook, then adventures, supplements and zines to the same players, mostly on marketplaces and crowdfunding, with some sold direct as PDFs. Tally reads the direct sales and ties each to the visit behind it, so you can see what brings players and whether they come back for the next book.
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01How they sell
- One-offPDFs of the core rules, adventures, supplements and zines, often in bundles, each bought once.
- FreemiumA free quickstart or a starter adventure that lets a group try the system before buying the full book.
- SubscriptionA monthly zine or a stream of new adventures for subscribers on the designer's site.
02Payments it reads
- Lemon SqueezyPDFs and bundles sold as Lemon Squeezy downloads, with orders and refunds read and the checkout's custom data carrying the visitor's id.
- StripeDesigners with their own store charge through Stripe Checkout, and sell physical copies with shipping the same way.
What Tally can't read
- Sales on DriveThruRPG or itch.io aren't read; those marketplaces take the payment.
- Kickstarter and BackerKit pledges aren't read.
- Print copies sold through a print-on-demand marketplace aren't read.
- Sales at conventions or game stores aren't read.
03Where buyers come from
- Actual playsA stream or podcast playing your game sends viewers through its show notes, best with a tagged link.
- RedditPosts in RPG subreddits send game masters who read the quickstart and come back to buy.
- DiscordYour community server and others share releases, arriving as shared links in Readable Direct.
- Blogs and reviewsRPG blogs reviewing a system send readers with a referrer, comparable by what they bought.
04What Tally answers
Do buyers of the core book buy the adventures?
Lifetime value counts every PDF a buyer purchases under their first source, with repeat rate, so you can see whether core-book buyers come back for supplements.
Lifetime valueDoes the free quickstart lead to sales?
Mark the quickstart download with data-fast-goal and the goals view gives downloads, converting visitors and their revenue, by source.
Goals and funnelsDid the actual play or the Reddit post sell more?
The breakdowns put revenue beside each source, referrer and campaign, so an actual play's tagged link and a Reddit thread are compared by sales.
Sources with revenueDo buyers read the preview pages on our site?
What they read compares engaged time and scroll depth per page for buyers and other visitors, such as a page of sample rules or art.
What they read
05Numbers worth watching
- Repeat rate
- The share of buyers who bought more than once: the players a game line depends on.
- Goal conversion
- Quickstart downloads over visitors, by source.
- Revenue by source
- Direct revenue by source, read knowing marketplace and crowdfunding sales aren't in it.
06An example
Lifetime value by first source
All time: every payment since 1 Nov 2025. The period above doesn't apply.
| First source | Customers | Lifetime revenue | Average value | Renewals | Repeat rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GoogleOrganic Search | 325 | $40,560 | $125 | 845 | 52% |
| ChatGPTAI Assistants | 126 | $21,071 | $167 | 391 | 61% |
| Direct | 178 | $18,216 | $102 | 374 | 44% |
| NewsletterEmail | 94 | $17,362 | $185 | 357 | 69% |
| Hacker NewsOrganic Social | 84 | $11,741 | $140 | 227 | 55% |
| x.comOrganic Social | 115 | $10,190 | $89 | 161 | 33% |
| RedditOrganic Social | 84 | $9,016 | $107 | 160 | 40% |
| PerplexityAI Assistants | 42 | $6,342 | $151 | 101 | 57% |
| Every source | 1,048 | $134,498 | $128 | 2,616 | 51% |
A customer is a visitor linked to a sale, counted under the source of their first visit. Lifetime revenue is net of refunds and chargebacks; repeat rate is the share who paid more than once (a renewal, an upgrade or another purchase). $13,167 from 426 payments not linked to a visitor is in no row.
07Setting up
- Any HTML sitePut the tag on the game's site, the quickstart page and each product page.
- Lemon SqueezyAdd the visitor's id to each Lemon Squeezy checkout link as custom data from the product page.
- Give actual-play hosts a UTM-tagged link for their show notes, so their viewers' purchases are credited.
08Questions
Most of my sales are on DriveThruRPG. What does Tally show?
The direct sales through your own Lemon Squeezy, Stripe, Paddle or Polar account, and clicks out to your marketplace pages. Marketplace sales themselves aren't read.
A bundle includes three PDFs. Is that one sale?
Yes, one payment, credited to the visit it links to.
Can I see which game masters are in which country?
The country breakdown puts revenue beside each country; it doesn't name buyers unless your site identifies them.