D&D General D&D In The Mainstream - Again!

With the latest mainstream article* (this time the New York Times for the third time!) from a major news outlet covering the resurgence of D&D, I thought I'd take a quick look at similar articles which have appeared on the radar of major newspapers and broadcasters recently, including The Guardian, the BBC, the Washington Post, and more!

*Note, this article was written in Nov 2019, but I intend to update the list below as more such articles appear. Last updated Sep 2022.

Image from NYT, depicting live-streamed D&D show "Rivals of Waterdeep"​

Just yesterday, the Washington Examiner joined in. Forbes also covers the game fairly regularly. It's pretty amazing that this hobby is now appearing in mainstream media on a regular basis. There's a major mainstream article every couple of months now, it seems. The articles are usually very similar -- the surprising revelation of the "rise" or "resurgence" of D&D, and reports that D&D is now 'out of the basement', a few words from somebody at WotC about how the current year is the best year yet, and perhaps an interview with a gamer or two explaining why they think D&D is resurgent now, as well as quotes from a celebrity gamer.

The New York Times was surprised about the popularity of D&D twice this year - this week on D&D's resurgence, and back in April on "why the cool kids are playing Dungeons & Dragons". The Times looks at the strangeness of D&D becoming cool, while the Washington Post wonders how D&D became more popular than ever. IGN explains the recent surge in popularity, and the Guardian tells us we're no longer nerds because D&D is cool now (update: and then again in November 2019, July 2019, May 202, and then in September 2022). The BBC covers the phenomenon, as does Australia's ABC.

It'll be fun to see what comes next, if D&D's resurgence becomes no longer 'news' but accepted fact, and the outlets get to report on more focused aspects of the hobby -- hopefully the coverage won't die down. It's come some way since 2004 when the BBC asked "What happened to Dungeons & Dragons?" They've certainly got to stop being surprised at the resurgence soon! (*edit -- as of July 2022, nope, they're still surprised!)

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UPDATE -- January 2023, during the height of "OGL-gate", D&D has featured heavily. I have made a separate OGL-gate list here.

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• The Guardian: From satanic panic to billion-dollar business: how Dungeons & Dragons conquered the world (Sep 29, 2022)
• The Telegraph: How Dungeons and Dragons became cool (July 1st, 2022)
• The New York Times: Who’s Playing Dungeons & Dragons These Days? The Usual Fans, and Then Some (May 21st, 2022)
• BBC: Covid-19: 'Dungeons and Dragons got us through lockdown' (July 3rd, 2021)
• LA Times. Turning to Dungeons & Dragons to escape a real-life monster — COVID-19 (Jan 13th, 2021)
• The Metro. Why now is a great time to start playing Dungeons & Dragons (Nov 4, 2020).
• LA Times. D&D nerds (like me) are donning virtual armor and venturing online amid pandemic (Oct 9, 2020).
• The Washington Post: Amid a pandemic and a racial reckoning, ‘D&D’ finds itself at an inflection point (July 24, 2020)
• The Guardian: Dungeons & Dragons in lockdown: as my universe contracts, this game expands whole worlds (May 19, 2020)
• Variety: Inside Joe Manganiello’s Epic Dungeons & Dragons Campaign (May 6th, 2020)
• CNBC: How Critical Role helped start a Dungeons & Dragons renaissance (March 14th, 2020)
• USA Today: Dungeons & Dragons had fallen on 'troubled times.' The role-playing game's fifth edition changed everything (Jan 14th 2020)
• New York Times: In a Chaotic World, Dungeons & Dragons Is Resurgent (Nov 13, 2019)
• CBR: How Dungeons & Dragons Quietly Took Over Pop Culture (Aug 25, 2019)
• New York Times: Why the Cool Kids are playing Dungeons &/ Dragons (April 6, 2019)
• The Times: Dungeons & Dragons cool? Stranger things have happened (July 12, 2019)
• BBC: Dungeons & Dragons: The revival of a 'geeky' pastime (May 26, 2018)
• The Guardian: No more nerds: how Dungeons & Dragons finally became cool (July 13, 2019)
• ABD News: Dungeons & Dragons resurrected from basement into mainstream (July 5, 2019)
• IGN: Dungeons & Dragons Creators and Celebrity Players Explain Its Recent Surge in Popularity (October 2, 2019)
• Washington Post: How Dungeons & Dragons somehow became more popular than ever (April 18, 2019)
• The Guardian: 'It's cool now': why Dungeons & Dragons is casting its spell again (Nov 29, 2019)
• The Star: When did Dungeons & Dragons suddenly become cool? (Jan 5, 2018)
• The New Yorker: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons & Dragons (Oct 24, 2017)
• WIRED: The Media Still Owes Dungeons & Dragons an Apology (yes, they were saying this back in 2015!)
• Vice: How Dungeons & Dragons Went Mainstream (Sep 3, 2015)

With a bit of Googling, you can also uncover a ton of local news outlets which have covered the game, such as the Liverpool Echo, the Oxford Observer, the Washington Examiner, or the Chicago Daily Herald, as well as many comic book and general geek sites. D&D is everywhere! Even the Cyprus Mail!

I'm sure there are more! Those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head.

The Fumble: Major Newspaper Surprised By How Often It's Been Surprised By Renewed Popularity of RPGs

As part of its 2019 retrospective series, the Peoria Times-Mail-Picayune recently featured a surprising article expressing surprise at how often it's been surprised over the past year by the surprising resurgence in popularity of tabletop role-playing games. "One of the biggest stories of the...

www.enworld.org

 

[Rafael Martin]

I was a D&D Nerd before being a D&D Nerd was cool!!!

 

[Zardnaar]

And yet people continue to challenge it.

Not so much challenged but it's spin.

Double figure growth rate could mean a lot, at 10% it means the game will double in size every 7 years, at 35% it's roughly every two years.

People also like throwing around words like unprecedented which isn't accurate either as 1E and BECMI had a similar pattern.

D&D is doing well obviously, anything beyond that is spin though without exact numbers.

 

[Morrus]

I was a D&D Nerd before being a D&D Nerd was cool!!!

Weren't we all?

 

[Parmandur]

Not so much challenged but it's spin.

Double figure growth rate could mean a lot, at 10% it means the game will double in size every 7 years, at 35% it's roughly every two years.

People also like throwing around words like unprecedented which isn't accurate either as 1E and BECMI had a similar pattern.

D&D is doing well obviously, anything beyond that is spin though without exact numbers.

It's unprecedented, as 5E is outdoing the 1R and B/X spikes, and still going.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I wonder if D&D spikes every 20 years or so, when a new generation comes along. Once all potential customers have bought copies of the core rules, the spike ends.

Nerds have gone mainstream, but that's largely a separate phenomenon.

 

[Parmandur]

I wonder if D&D spikes every 20 years or so, when a new generation comes along. Once all potential customers have bought copies of the core rules, the spike ends.

Nerds have gone mainstream, but that's largely a separate phenomenon.

That has not been the historical pattern, no.

 

[ad_hoc]

It's unprecedented, as 5E is outdoing the 1R and B/X spikes, and still going.

Yeah, something not happening before is not precedented. The argument that 5e isn't popular is getting sillier and sillier.

In 2013 the RPG market according to icv2 was $15 million. In 2018 it was $65 million. More than quadruple in 5 years. This is sales per year, not total.

In 2017 12-15 million people played D&D in North America alone.

2018 Saw D&D's greatest sales year ever (to be surpassed by 2019 no doubt).

The rate of sales of 5e has been increasing by double digits each year.

In 2019 it was estimated that over 40 million people have ever played D&D.

The 5e PHB is currently ranked #41 on Amazon and has maintained this high sales rank over the last 5e years. This is a strong indication that new players continue to join the game.

I think it is reasonable to estimate that the player base is over 20 million.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah, something not happening before is not precedented. The argument that 5e isn't popular is getting sillier and sillier.

In 2013 the RPG market according to icv2 was $15 million. In 2018 it was $65 million. More than quadruple in 5 years. This is sales per year, not total.

In 2017 12-15 million people played D&D in North America alone.

2018 Saw D&D's greatest sales year ever (to be surpassed by 2019 no doubt).

The rate of sales of 5e has been increasing by double digits each year.

In 2019 it was estimated that over 40 million people have ever played D&D.

The 5e PHB is currently ranked #41 on Amazon and has maintained this high sales rank over the last 5e years. This is a strong indication that new players continue to join the game.

I think it is reasonable to estimate that the player base is over 20 million.

The 40 million is for all players ever all editions.

It's about a 35% growth rate which has been done before, 77-83 or so. If you adjust for inflation the Golden age D&D alone was bigger than the RPG market.

It was split over two editions though with similar numbers when the population was a lot smaller.

What 5E gas pulled off is reverse a decades long decline since 1983. Eventually it will go down, 6E might pull a 2E but even if the pattern repeats D&D should be good for a few more decades.

 

[ad_hoc]

The 40 million is for all players ever all editions.

Yes, that is exactly what I wrote.

I have no idea what you're trying to say with the rest of your post.

D&D has never seen even close to this popularity before. The data we have is overwhelming in this regard.

If you add together all of the player who have ever played from 1977-2014 you get, at most, the same amount of people who have played from 2014-2019.

 

[Mistwell]

If you adjust for inflation the Golden age D&D alone was bigger than the RPG market.

The evidence for this statement has become pretty sketchy.