EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
Sure, but as I'm sure you know, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data."anecdotally, dwarves are one of the most popular choices in face-to-face groups I'm in (as are half-elves).
More importantly, several factors can be at play there:
1. Older players tend to be more in favor of "traditional" options.
2. Dwarves (and half-elves!) do have some powerful mechanical bonuses, so if your group is optimizer-heavy, that could explain both neatly. Meanwhile, dragonborn are the weakest PHB race by a country mile.
3. Sample size is likely to bamboozle probability estimates.
4. In general, characters tend to linger for a while, but the DDB data is constantly evolving as new characters get made. A person playing a dwarf in your experience means there's a constant proportion of dwarf in their party. That doesn't hold for the DDB data, which will fluctuate.