Why so space marines sell well?

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**Gandair**

I remember seeing a post a while back about GW being pleased with the sales numbers of their Space Marine line and it's been bothering me for a few months now.

The game is roughly half space marines. OF COURSE they're going to sell well. On paper it appears they're half your sales to begin with. Do you think if you broke it down codex chapter by codex chapter would the top sellers be only the marines? I think it would be more, Ultramarines, Guard, and oddly Tau. Followed by Eldar, CSM, Bugs, and other stuff. The order isn't too relevant but really. GW boasts about great sales of their marine line, but that's only because they are half the armies. Do you think marines truly rest in all the top say... three spots?

Which three armies do you think sell the most?

I feel it would be as I listed above:

1. Ultramarines (this includes any non-codex chapter using the Ultras codex)
2. Imperial Guard
3. Tau (I see a lot of Tau, no really, out of the 5 new players I met this year, 3 play Tau. Maybe it's just AZ though. I hear we have lots more Tau than normal.)

Edit: I posted this in the wrong general forum. Meant it to be in 40k general, but I clicked the wrong browser tab because I had multiple forums open as I was browsing.

**LunaHound**

Core games always features marines . All new players are introduced to these super soldiers in super armor doing super super good things for their super god emperor.

Oh, and ultra marines arnt just super, they are ULTRA!

**padixon**

Because they look so darn cool and the models rock.

**malfred**

Why not just ask your local GW manager? They can tell you what sells and not just what is
being played.

**Bookwrack**

IIRC, power armor armies (SM and CSM) outsell WHFB as a whole. If people actually didn't like playing marines, it wouldn't matter how much GW pushed them, they wouldn't sell as well as they do.

**Jon Garrett**

Marines are a simple, potent army. You don't need many models to have a functioning army and the basic models are some of the easiest to paint in the whole range. Plus they're everywhere.

**1hadhq**

padixon wrote:Because they look so darn cool and the models rock.

Seconded.

Further reason:

-space marines are compatible. You can combine a lot of different sprues without any trouble.
-divergent armies possible. From the basic plastic marine plus some chapter specific bitz you may try different playstyles without need
of specific models/units. If youre unhappy how your army works, change it.
-the "hero" bonus.
-easy to do paintschemes.
-low numbers. Keeps the time consumption until your ready to field painted minis in check.
-units available on shelf.

PS: i doubt its possible to split up how SM sells into SM-codices.

**Delephont**

Well, doesn't this mean that GW needs to start pushing the other armies....I mean, if everyone has a Marine army ( unfortunately I do! ) then who the hell are we going to fight against.

**imperialist dog**

as a young man i only wanted the coolest looking models realy to show off more then play. SM are cool looking and futuristic unlike ork or IG. both eldar look scrony and chaos are badies not goodies.

tau are realy still and up and coming army they have a lot of room for development yet. but they will creep up on SM as tau have similar kinds of qualities liek cool armor and cooler looking guns. but they will never take the top spot because SM (i think) are the basics which around 40k developed both in play and fluff

**athba**

I think Eldar do quite well too - IG are up there with SM since new releases but over time SM will rule over everything else as they bring new people into the hobby

**imperialist dog**

athba wrote:I think Eldar do quite well too - IG are up there with SM since new releases but over time SM will rule over everything else as they bring new people into the hobby

they got me playing... though i kinda remember being thrashed over and over again by everyone and every army... nothing much changes apart from now i let other people thrach my IG as there a little more use to it

**Pirate_joe_666**

Other Space Marines.

**1hadhq**

Delephont wrote:Well, doesn't this mean that GW needs to start pushing the other armies....I mean, if everyone has a Marine army ( unfortunately I do! ) then who the hell are we going to fight against.

A second heresy?

Storeboys have to field xenos ( and loose as good employees ) ?

Doesn't GW push non-SM armies with questionable rules already?

**Arctik_Firangi**

Tau have been quite a good seller but I feel that they've been slowing down in sales - the suits are horribly expensive now to boot. Not at all a fan myself - would rather make another MEQ army.

**Gwar!**

Marines Sell well because they are a lot cheaper than some other armies.

Compare the Cash cost of a 1500 Marine Army and a 1500 Hoard Army. See what I mean?

Also, Marines are able to have a Legal Army with a Whopping 11 Models, one of the smallest currently possible. (ironically Orks win this award, being able to have a Totally legal Army list with 4 Models, and another Legal List with 8.)

**Kilkrazy**

Tau got pretty well caned by the 5e rules changes and their codex is three years old. The suits aren't that expensive considering how few of them you need in an army. It used to be one of the most popular armies. Orks, Eldar and IG have probably overtaken due to having new codexes and models.

**Arctik_Firangi**

Gwar! wrote:
Also, Marines are able to have a Legal Army with a Whopping 11 Models, one of the smallest currently possible. (ironically Orks win this award, being able to have a Totally legal Army list with 4 Models, and another Legal List with 8.)

Heheh... Two Big Meks and two Dreads aren't exactly a cheap option. Point made.

**Gwar!**

I never said the Ork Armies were cheaper did I

**Duce**

The marines appeal to everyone whos got a inner geek. Huge super humans who kick ass and butcher hundreds... seriously any one on this site saying they havent had a space marine dream is lying, or over 30. in that case they had an emperor dream.

They just appeal to the human sense of super human which we all have heard about, feats of strength, speed and awesome fighting powers.

their rules are also in my opinion the most straight forward, their army size is small enough people starting out can graps it easier than horde armies, but they also have allowances for mistakes made... if it was guard you'd loose a load, but with the armour saves they allow some leeway.

The vehicles and variety of units make their lists wide and varied, that and they have killer units, quick response units etc.

in short their a fun army with uniform looks, and simple to paint compared to nids or such. a good allrounder for people in the hobby.

I love them.

**Howard A Treesong**

I always thought Chaos were popular, perhaps they are not so much in recent years.

Space marines practically *are* the game. You can't get away from that, they are the most iconic thing about 40K and have been on every edition of the game. They tick all the fanboy boxes of looking cool and being hard as nails (not a bad thing). Furthermore they are an easy army to collect and play with and have enough variation through their various chapters to be any colour scheme you want.

**Sidstyler**

I don't care how "cool" they or the models are, I still say one of the main reasons Spess Mahreenz sell is because it's the only investment you can be certain will be worthwhile.

If you buy Marines you're guaranteed to be first in line for updates in every edition, you're in every starter set so if you ever need cheap models to flush out the ranks you can take advantage of that, you've already got an almost entirely plastic line and you'll be getting models quite often on top of that...veteran models in particular seem to come out whenever GW feels like doing new ones. If you pick any other race in the game you honestly have no idea, you're dealing with hybrid kits or in some cases entire armies made of metal, rules that in some cases have gone two editions without an update, and you have no way of knowing whether GW even still acknowledges that the army you picked exists unless you see them mentioned in a WD by accident or there's some new, non-recycled artwork for them in one of their many pointless expansions.

Also, since every army sells less than Marines, you're at risk of being dropped from the game for not being profitable enough (which no army will be since no one gets the same love that Space Marines get) and having all that time and money spent on said army invalidated, gone to waste.

**pixelpusher**

I find it hard to believe that new gamers reason like you imply they do. I believe that most new gamers choose space marines because they're both fluffy and still really cool. Like, uhm, Wolverine?
There's just so much variety (and a -ton- of fluff) in the marine lore / image so you can adapt your marines to any kind of style.

Wanna be ultra-carebear? Ultramarines!
Wanna be really cool / dark / emo? Templars! Dark Angels!
Wanna be both, and then some? Your own chapter! (Yes, I know, I know squat about the current SM-lore.)

Best thing about it! You still get to have this cool chainsaw-sword-thingie and look like the ultimate badass in the ultimate cool-guy armour!!!

Veteran gamers might choose SM just to be sure to have their investment "secured", but I still believe that most gamers – veteran or not – choose marines because most of the lore evolves around them. And because they're the ultimate badasses.

ETA: I chose something else. I chose ork!

**Orkeosaurus**

**Gwar!**

You forgot the green hair and white faec.

**nintendoeats**

Everyone who read Starship Troopers wants to play Speze marinez. I mean, who didn't want to join the future infantry after reading that? Well, not me cause I'm lazy...But I totally want one of those suits.

I still use some of Marine bitz just because they are so hardcore.

**avantgarde**

Really? I wanted to be a bug after reading SST. I'd have 6 kicking rad legs, scent based communication and a willingness to sacrifice my life for the hive. HELL YEAH!

**nintendoeats**

avantgarde wrote:Really? I wanted to be a bug after reading SST. I'd have 6 kicking rad legs, scent based communication and a willingness to sacrifice my life for the hive. HELL YEAH!

So is it you or me that is the communist? According to SST that would be me... I guess...

**Ghidorah**

nintendoeats wrote:But I totally want one of those suits.

I TOTALLY read this as:

nintendoeats wrote:But I totally want one of those sluts.

...and thought to myself, "Yeah, Denise Richards would be nice, wouldn't she?"

Ghidorah

**Orkeosaurus**

nintendoeats wrote:
avantgarde wrote:Really? I wanted to be a bug after reading SST. I'd have 6 kicking rad legs, scent based communication and a willingness to sacrifice my life for the hive. HELL YEAH!
So is it you or me that is the communist? According to SST that would be me... I guess...

You're both communist.

Enjoy your Gulag.

**Elnicko5**

I think another reason SM sell so well is that they are such a flexible army that you can do pretty much anything you want with them and still have them be effective. Mek, Horde, DS, Gunline, and just about every army setup you can think of can be done, and done well, with SM. Their versatility, combined with resilience of general units, convertibility, sweet models, cool fluff, the priority given to their design, and the fact that they are in the starter set put them in a prime position to be a top seller. Man, after listing their pro's Im wondering why I don't go back to playing them.