Thats how it was in the TSR era. There would be a slow increase in choices. Then next edition would pare it back down again and start building up again. WOTC has done overall the same. Though 5e is still far far behind any other edition in opening up race selection. So far.
This claim surprises me; for example, http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/#toc3 lists 67 current WotC-written races for 5e; it looks like 13 or 14 are unofficial, and 20 are setting-specific, but that still leaves 34 official races in core books. How are you quantifying race variety in other editions?
(Happily, the one player in my new 5e game who wanted to play Harengon asked if it was OK, but it's an explicitly Forgotten Realms kitchen-sink game to make my co-DMs happy, so we said yes.)
Unearthed Arcanna doesnt count as thats all playtest stuff.
Planeshift is its own setting and doesnt count as AL doesnt recognize it. Same for Eberron and Ravinca and especially Theros as thats an outsourced work. The nu-Ravenloft ones might count but its hard to say as they are iffy on being new races. YMMV. So far Adventurers League does not allow any of those.
The monster races are also iffy as they were optional. But AL I believe will allow.
The Haregon and one or two others are from modules.
The Tortle is an iffy one as its only up as a PDF and not sure if AL allows or not.
So 9 core races. Actually more than that as the list does not include Drow, Duergar, Snivirblin, and one or two more offshoot races.
It also misses the Eladrin and Aasimaar from the DMG. So technically more than 9.
Im not counting anything that exists only as a PDF. A few have made it into books. But so far many have not. Campaign modules are also iffy as if you dont have the module, they essentually dont exist and AL flip flops on whats kosher and whats not. Otherwise every single race in TSR era Dragon and RPGA would count - and that kids is a ton of new races.
So still the race count is very low for official stuff and about TSR era for iffy stuff. TSR used to flip-flop on what was playable and what wasnt as well.
I'll have to pull out the core books, not modules and do a real head count, again. Its still damn low compared to TSR and pre-3e WOTC.
