I remember in 1983 or so, Newsweek had an article about D&D, and said there were about 4 million active (once a month or more) players.
I still the early 1980s were the heyday of D&D, in terms of cultural impact and name recognition.
The number of players may have "quietly" grown back to those levels, but I personally don't believe it. I'd guess is that the gaming community is like my personal history with the game:
-- massive playing in the early 1980s, sharp decline in the 2nd Edition era, bottomed out in the mid-1990s, resurrection in the WOTC era.
An AVID fan of the game, I dropped 2nd Edition in favor of playing RECON, Boot Hill, computer games, or nothing at all from 1990-1996. In 1996, I restarted with 1st Edition AD&D -- the only one of many, many gamers I knew who was playing any form of D&D at the time. By 2005, every single player in my many campaigns and the games of my friends as a DM or a player was either:
-- a lapsed player lost during the Second Edition era who returned with "underground" 1st Edition I was evangelizing
-- a lapsed player lost during the Second Edition era who came back to play 3rd Edition under me or under a formely lapsed 1st Edition player I woke up and turned into a 3rd Edition DM
-- or new players evangelized to 3rd Edition by the old guard.
My conclusion: The game nearly died, but it's definitely back. How back it is, though, is hard to tell. Poker, World of Warcraft, Knights of the Old Republic, and Halo seem far more "popular" pastimes, and D&D is a still "alternative". I guess it mostly always was.
I still the early 1980s were the heyday of D&D, in terms of cultural impact and name recognition.
The number of players may have "quietly" grown back to those levels, but I personally don't believe it. I'd guess is that the gaming community is like my personal history with the game:
-- massive playing in the early 1980s, sharp decline in the 2nd Edition era, bottomed out in the mid-1990s, resurrection in the WOTC era.
An AVID fan of the game, I dropped 2nd Edition in favor of playing RECON, Boot Hill, computer games, or nothing at all from 1990-1996. In 1996, I restarted with 1st Edition AD&D -- the only one of many, many gamers I knew who was playing any form of D&D at the time. By 2005, every single player in my many campaigns and the games of my friends as a DM or a player was either:
-- a lapsed player lost during the Second Edition era who returned with "underground" 1st Edition I was evangelizing
-- a lapsed player lost during the Second Edition era who came back to play 3rd Edition under me or under a formely lapsed 1st Edition player I woke up and turned into a 3rd Edition DM
-- or new players evangelized to 3rd Edition by the old guard.
My conclusion: The game nearly died, but it's definitely back. How back it is, though, is hard to tell. Poker, World of Warcraft, Knights of the Old Republic, and Halo seem far more "popular" pastimes, and D&D is a still "alternative". I guess it mostly always was.
