Was my wording off, or were a lot of people surprised that sixth edition was more popular than they thought it would be? I suspect a lot of people are feeling shocked that Sixth World is the number one download on DriveThruRPG ever since it came out.
I don't think that's either surprising or meaningful. This forum, r/shadowrun, and dumpshock combined are probably an audience of fewer than four figures, which is presumably very small compared to the pool of potential purchasers of SR6e. It's reasonable to assume that many people buying have not read any of the back-and-forth discussions online, and so their decision to buy does not reflect them dismissing the concerns that have been raised here and elsewhere but simply not knowing about them.
But if we're considering DTRPG data, let's take a look at the star ratings and number of reviewers for each of the titles in, let's say, DTRPG's current top 10:
- SR6e - 3.4/5; n=8; released August 26, 2019
- Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit - 4.8/5; n=38; released August 01, 2019
- Legend of the Five Rings: Courts of Stone - 5/5, n=1; released August 27, 2019
- Eclipse Phase Second Edition - 5/5; n=11; August 09, 2019
- Legend of the Five Rings: Winter's Embrace - 5/5; n=1; August 27, 2019.
- Occult Philosophy - 5/5; n=20; July 29, 2019
- Rangers of Shadow Deep: Ghost Stone - 5/5; n=2; August 02, 2019.
- Esper Genesis 5E Threats Database; 5/5; n=5; August 15, 2019.
- Stars Without Number: Revised Edition - 4.9/5; n=151; December 29, 2017.
- Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon - 5/5; n=17; July 10, 2019.
It's early days and we must be cautious about drawing conclusions from only 8 reviews, but it does appear that SR6e is getting ratings significantly more quickly than most titles on that list, and that those ratings are significantly lower than any of the other titles. And DTRPG only allows you to review titles you bought, so this cannot be grandstanding from people desperate to spread negativity, unless they were desperate enough to spend $20 to do so.