What are the highest & lowest-selling armies?

[Jabroniville]

I've always been curious about this- I don't think GW lists all of this exactly, but somebody who works in the stores or corporate might be able to tell me. I always figured that Chaos Warriors probably sell very well, and every army goes through a "surge" when a new book/model is released, but some specifics escape me.

Ones I figure are lower-tier sellers: Dwarfs (too boring to play & collect), Beastmen (always seemed to be the bastard child of the Chaos triad, not to mention having the weakest overall army concept out there- I mean, Goat People? What kind of fantasy uses THAT?), Lizardmen (less related to the other armies) & Tomb Kings (a less popular version of undead). Dwarfs might be iffy since they're a "classic" Warhammer army, but their lack of new ANYTHING for so long has probably hurt them. Daemons probably do well because they're shared between two games.

[Canadianguy]

Wood elves, bastard child of the elf triad?

[Dalamar]

not to mention having the weakest overall army concept out there- I mean, Goat People? What kind of fantasy uses THAT?

Warhammer uses that, you do know that aside from DnD, Warhammer is one of the fantasy pre-cursors right? "goat-people" as you say, are a very important part of the warhammer world.

I'd say the worst selling armies are dwarfs, bretonnia, tomb kings, beastmen and wood elves. Not because their models might not be popular but because their rules are either updated or plain suck.

[Jabroniville]

Yeah, I know obviously Warhammer uses them, but they're the lowest-tier of all the Chaos Armies, and not used or referenced nearly as much as almost any other race. Skaven for example are a race of animal-people that's used MUCH more. And also, Goat People aren't used basically anyplace else I've read in Fantasy books- Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins & Demons/Daemons sure are, by contrast. Even Wererats became popular in D&D (and some other fantasy series), and Lizardfolk/men are common elsewhere (same with Ogres). It seems like Beastmen are the least-used or common- this means they have the smallest "built-in" fandom of people getting into the hobby, who would at least be familiar with Elves & stuff from something else they've read or watched.

[Datalink7]

Yeah, I know obviously Warhammer uses them, but they're the lowest-tier of all the Chaos Armies, and not used or referenced nearly as much as almost any other race. Skaven for example are a race of animal-people that's used MUCH more. And also, Goat People aren't used basically anyplace else I've read in Fantasy books- Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins & Demons/Daemons sure are, by contrast. Even Wererats became popular in D&D (and some other fantasy series), and Lizardfolk/men are common elsewhere (same with Ogres). It seems like Beastmen are the least-used or common- this means they have the smallest "built-in" fandom of people getting into the hobby, who would at least be familiar with Elves & stuff from something else they've read or watched.

I don't know. Beastment are pretty iconic to the warhammer world. They make up a great deal of the enemy in many Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay adventures.

[Jolemai]

I would imagine that there's no definitive answer to this as with each new army book release the numbers are constantly in flux.

In 40k the answer is Space Marines.

[Kargan daemonclaw]

Beastmen are iconic in the eternal champion books by Michael Morcock.

for someone well read in fantasy literature you have missed out on a classic fantasy influence.

Dark Elves are similar to the elves in Elric as is the idea of an eternally powerful sword, elves riding dragons, chaos gods, chaos champions etc......