D&D General Some Interesting Stats About D&D Players!

The full cover spread for Phandelver and Below, by Antonio José Manzanedo​

GeekWire has reported on the recent D&D press event (which I've covered elsewhere). Along with all the upcoming product information we've all been devouring over the last day or two, there were some interesting tidbits regarding D&D player demographics.

• 60% of D&D players are male, 39% are female, and 1% identify otherwise
• 60% are “hybrid” players, who switch between playing the game physically or online
• 58% play D&D on a weekly basis
• 48% identify as millennials, 19% from Generation X and 33% from Generation Z
• The majority of current D&D players started with 5th Edition

 

[Minigiant]

You've made a few assumptions that aren't supported by the very limited data we have.

Wizards did not suggest that they are only tracking players of 5e. Their actual actions have made it clear that they will sell to people who don't play 5e.

Your social media circle of Baby Boomer D&D players isn't likely to be greater than 100,000 people. Plus, the social media spread of people 60+ isn't great. Boomers tend not to be on social media, with only two platforms having a majority of Boomers use them at least once a week.

People's tastes do change. Just look at the type of media that Boomers enjoyed when they were teens compared to what they enjoy now -- 60s/70s pop radio became classics with much, much smaller audiences, the TV shows they watch now are the most popular but what they watched then as kids was counter-culture.

You're not using the mathematical logic here though.

There are more Boomers than Gen Xers. So if Boomer still exist and are prominent on FB and still are very visible on other Social Media, if Xers are at 19% then Boomers shouldn't be less than 1%.

The idea that "people get older and leave due to lack of time" doesn't make sense either as the biggest group in the survey is Millenials and they are mostly in their 30 and early 40s. Well old enough to be grown adults with lack of time to pursue hobbies.

So either the numbers are off, the survey is in a space Boomers don't frequent, or the classification of what WOTC is calling D&D is something Boomers would not call D&D (aka 5e).

WOTC's actual actions have made it clear that they will sell to people who don't play 5e. But if the people tried 5e and went back to their old game, WOTC doesn't want to sacrifice the game to get them back anymore. Thet tried appealing to Boomers at the start of 5e and as the survey shows... the Boomers mostly didn't stay because they already had an edition that does everything they wanted.

 

[Hussar]

So either the numbers are off, the survey is in a space Boomers don't frequent, or the classification of what WOTC is calling D&D is something Boomers would not call D&D (aka 5e).

See, I just don't get this.

This result is identical to the results we've seen over and over again for the past thirty or forty years. Why would the demographics suddenly shift now when they never have before?

Even looking at En World

2017- https://www.enworld.org/threads/a-look-at-en-worlds-stats-demographics.664047/
2015 - https://www.enworld.org/threads/a-quick-look-at-en-worlds-demographics.663398/
2002 - https://www.enworld.org/threads/how...pulation-of-en-world.3170/page-9#post-1900355
2006 (ish) - John Kim's RPG Articles and Reviews
2021 - https://www.enworld.org/threads/another-year-of-en-world-demographics.680725/
2014 - https://www.enworld.org/threads/players-age.360752/

I mean, good grief, how many times do we have to get the exact same results before we accept that maybe, just maybe, they might be accurate?

I just don't understand this resistance to the notion that D&D is largely a 18-35 y.o.'s hobby. Why does this seem to bother people so much?

 

[Oofta]

You're not using the mathematical logic here though.

There are more Boomers than Gen Xers. So if Boomer still exist and are prominent on FB and still are very visible on other Social Media, if Xers are at 19% then Boomers shouldn't be less than 1%.

The idea that "people get older and leave due to lack of time" doesn't make sense either as the biggest group in the survey is Millenials and they are mostly in their 30 and early 40s. Well old enough to be grown adults with lack of time to pursue hobbies.

So either the numbers are off, the survey is in a space Boomers don't frequent, or the classification of what WOTC is calling D&D is something Boomers would not call D&D (aka 5e).

WOTC's actual actions have made it clear that they will sell to people who don't play 5e. But if the people tried 5e and went back to their old game, WOTC doesn't want to sacrifice the game to get them back anymore. Thet tried appealing to Boomers at the start of 5e and as the survey shows... the Boomers mostly didn't stay because they already had an edition that does everything they wanted.

There's a couple of problems with your conclusion. First, the baby boomers officially spanned from 1946-1964. If we assume old school D&D peaked somewhere around 1980 (just a guess, I have no clue), that means that the oldest boomers were in their 30s during the boom period when gaming was still considered something that only kids and, perhaps, college age young adults played them. So right away, you're taking out a huge chunk of the baby boomer generation. It's likely that only the tale end boomers such as myself and people a couple of years older, say those born from 1960 on got into D&D to a significant degree. Most were already working and raising families by the time the game caught on. Heck, if the boomer "generation" used the span of years used for the next two generations, they wouldn't even be considered boomers (which was 18 years instead of 14). Then again lumping people this way is kind of odd in the first place.

So it's likely we only have the very tail end of the boomer generation that ever picked up the game and played long enough before they started careers for it to stick. There are of course exceptions here and there. Then throw in all the rest, that the numbers could be inaccurate for any number of reasons, they could have lumped everyone above 40 into the same group, etc.

So are those boomers playing D&D, just not 5E? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps they've gone on to other systems, perhaps they just don't play any more. Maybe enough of that relative handful of boomers that ever got into TTRPGs play OSR games that your conclusion is valid. My point is that we really just don't know, we don't have enough information to make any kind of conclusion.

 

[humble minion]

I just don't understand this resistance to the notion that D&D is largely a 18-35 y.o.'s hobby.

Before covid brought me back to D&D via VTT games in lockdown, I used to have an occasional boardgame night at a game cafe near work. The place was continually packed to the eyeballs with university-aged D&D groups - of almost balanced gender makeup. I was in a RPG club back in university (in the late 90s when D&D was basically moribund, admittedly) and I never saw ANYTHING like that. I have no problem whatsoever believing that the game is booming among this age group.

After all, once you get to the age where you start having kids, buying houses, it becomes a lot harder to commit to a regular game. I reckon that's when a lot of people stop playing. I know that's the trajectory our group took. Regular once a week on weeknights til our early 30s, then grinding to a halt once real life intervened, then back together in covid and now once a fortnight on a weekend (if we can manage it). And we've only got one parent in our group - I suspect it'd be harder with more kids around.

 

[Micah Sweet]

See, I just don't get this.

This result is identical to the results we've seen over and over again for the past thirty or forty years. Why would the demographics suddenly shift now when they never have before?

Even looking at En World

2017- https://www.enworld.org/threads/a-look-at-en-worlds-stats-demographics.664047/
2015 - https://www.enworld.org/threads/a-quick-look-at-en-worlds-demographics.663398/
2002 - https://www.enworld.org/threads/how...pulation-of-en-world.3170/page-9#post-1900355
2006 (ish) - John Kim's RPG Articles and Reviews
2021 - https://www.enworld.org/threads/another-year-of-en-world-demographics.680725/
2014 - https://www.enworld.org/threads/players-age.360752/

I mean, good grief, how many times do we have to get the exact same results before we accept that maybe, just maybe, they might be accurate?

I just don't understand this resistance to the notion that D&D is largely a 18-35 y.o.'s hobby. Why does this seem to bother people so much?

Well, given that the age here skews older than that, those demographics suggest that many of us are engaging in an age-inappropriate hobby. I can certainly see that bothering people.

 

[humble minion]

those demographics suggest that many of us are engaging in an age-inappropriate hobby

Oh pfft.

Age-atypical is not the same as age-inappropriate. People should enjoy whatever hobbies they damn well please regardless of age.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Oh pfft.

Age-atypical is not the same as age-inappropriate. People should enjoy whatever hobbies they damn well please regardless of age.

They absolutely should. But those demographics strongly suggest older players are "out of the loop", so to speak. Given that is very likely a majority on this site, it follows that this study could make many posters here feel ignored and irrelevant, resulting in push-back.

 

[mamba]

Well, given that the age here skews older than that, those demographics suggest that many of us are engaging in an age-inappropriate hobby. I can certainly see that bothering people.

age inappropriate to me is mostly about someone being too young for something, being too old for something is at best a convention.

I have no problem with me liking something the majority of people my age do not, and vice versa. Never bothered me the slightest, never will.

If you want to, consider yourself a trendsetter in this instance

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

We should remember the former players who stopped played after getting a job, marrying, being parents.... but they still love the hobby, and then they try to transmit it to the new generations of the family. Maybe Hasbro could produce a spot about that, with a look of 90's.

I say again there is a potential market sector, the fanfiction writters. When somebody is using D&D mythology, monsters and species to create their own worlds and stories, in certain way they are also playing D&D. Other point is media fantasy animation created by streamers, using machinima, VTT and the new generation of animation by AI.

Sorry, I am speculating again, but I mean the new generations will can play use the new technologies in a way we can't imagine yet.

* STOP, WAIT A MOMENT! Here we have forgotten a thing. There is a serious difference between the people from towns and cities. Why is an important difference? Because usually in towns TTRPGs aren't sold in comic stores. It is relevant when the geek who lives in towns needs internet to find other players.

 

[Oofta]

age inappropriate to me is mostly about someone being too young for something, being too old for something is at best a convention.

I have no problem with me liking something the majority of people my age do not, and vice versa. Never bothered me the slightest, never will.

If you want to, consider yourself a trendsetter in this instance

I like to think that I was just ahead of the times in a lot of my choices. Decades ahead, perhaps, but still ahead.