5E Rises But Still Trails Pathinder For Online Games

The Orr Group, the folks who make the popular ENnie-winning Roll20 virtual tabletop application, has released a new set of figures relating to which games are being played on their service. Last time, Pathfinder had a massive lead; in Quarter 4 2014 D&D 5E has increased its share from 16% to 24% of players, but Pathfinder has managed to hang on to that lead, remaining at about 43% of players.

Of course, you can spin stats to prove any conclusion you wish (for example, you could say that D&D games of all editions have 45% of the total, giving that brand a clear lead, if not specifically 5E), so we should be cautious about proclaiming anything definitive.

Fantasy Grounds also released stats last quarter (you can see both Roll20 and FG's stats for last quarter here), so it will be interesting to see what they have to say. Plus a new ICv2 report is due soonish.

Conversely, EN World's hot games chart, which tracks traffic on over a thousand sites and forums, gives D&D 5E 48% of web discussion. So it's clearly a hot topic!

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[Barantor]

When 5E gets more content out I think we will see more play out of it. I've seen more odd sites and news articles talking about D&D than any other RPG in a long time.

 

[TerraDave]

Speaking of spin...they have reached near parity in games. (The first stat). I think 5E was at 10% last quarter.

 

[Morrus]

Speaking of spin...they have reached near parity in games. (The first stat). I think 5E was at 10% last quarter.

Last quarter was 12% 5E vs 26% Pathfinder for number of games.

 

[Kramodlog]

5e is new, that explains why it is discust so much.

I wonder how much overlap there is. Players who play PF and 3.5 or 5e and PF, and how may only play one game.

 

[Queer Venger]

Nothing beats a face-to-face table top gaming experience ;-)
Long Live D&D!!!

 

[dd.stevenson]

I'm surprised 5E is as popular on roll20 as it is. Consider that those playing 5E online are receiving little-to-no electronic adventure support from wotc; whereas those playing earlier editions and Pathfinder have bucket-loads of pdfs available to them.

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

How has Numenera looked since 5E launched? With the places and people I normally frequent, it seems 5E gobbled up Numenera's players and may have effectively killed that game. I know I can't find enough people playing it to justify any further investment in it from my end.

 

[turkeygiant]

Are these numbers based off of Roll20 games actually being played, or just Roll20 games that have been created but aren't necessarily active? Like if somebody created a game in Q1 last year but it became inactive two weeks later would it still be counted now?

 

[Oakfist]

I think these figure are great at exactly what they do: showing the percentage of what RPG is being played on the Roll20 platform. Is this an 'Industry Report' that serves as any leading indicator of market share, etc or even really representative of online RPG games in general (Google Hangouts)? Maybe, but I would take the statistics here with a HUGE grain of salt. Not to take sides on PF v 5E, but I know a lot of folks who are wrapping up their PF campaigns and switching to 5E. It will be interesting to see if that get's reflected in the Roll20 figures the next time they are refreshed.