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

 

[MGibster]

I probably spent more on D&D in my teens than I do now, despite having like 1% of the income.

Same here. Partly because there were far more D&D books to purchase during the 2nd edition era than there are today. In addition to settings, we had the Complete Books of series, the historical campaigns series, and of course adventures. I remember one product, Treasure Maps, that came out around 1992. It featured a bunch of treasure maps, one printed for the DM and the other for the players, and each one had a little mini adventure that went with it. The only map I really remember is the one you find tattooed to the back of a dwarf.

Truthfully, I doubt I'd spend as much on splat books today even if they were available. But that's hard to determine because there aren't many companies that produce splat books like they did in the 1990s. FFG published all sorts of them for their Star Wars game, but I don't like their version enough to buy those books.

 

[MichaelSomething]

So WOTC needs to run events at senior centers to reverse the trend?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So WOTC needs to run events at senior centers to reverse the trend?

Look, I'll be DMing at least two ttrpg sessions for my 78 year old dad in June and am working on him becoming a DM for his septuagenarian friends.

The folks who are concerned about this -- and who aren't just upset that you're middle-aged or older -- should do something about it.

 

[jasper]

That makes you someone trained in MLA, the way God intended, not a Boomer.

Mooch Loot and Arson?

 

[mamba]

Mooch Loot and Arson?

Modern Language Association, takes a few seconds to google

 

[jasper]

That is actually a very suspect number in itself. IF (and that's a big IF) there were even 25 million players, and we each had gotten a ticket to the D&D movie at $10 a piece (I know, that's actually on the low end today, let's say they all went to matinee's), the D&D movie would have busted $250 million easily, and that's not even including any other individual that saw it due to advertising, going with friends, or just interested in it.

As it is, probably less than 50% of the audience were D&D players, and with the totals, and the low estimate ($10 a ticket) that means there would be less than 10 million active D&D players more than likely if we look at the BEST picture ratio.

The survey's ARE Public Relations and hype. That's what they are there for overall.

That doesn't mean they are WRONG...they actually are pretty accurate...from a certain point of view.

That said, let's say that 25 million of those played prior to 3e and were part of the original crowd of players.

In 2020 Millenials overtook Boomers as the largest population group in the United States. Of the Gen-X and Boomer population we also know that by 2000 there were less than 1 million active D&D players (or that's the numbers were have heard and assumed were still playing AD&D prior to 3e's release).

If we look at that overall and double it, even if there are 10 million active D&D players today (I know, I know, it doesn't match up to the hyped up numbers, but once again, that's from a certain point of view. 25 Mil AD&D + 5 mil 3e + 4 mil 4e + 16 mil 5e ever played =....) that would give around a 20% number of Boomers and Gen-X playing which is still pretty high comparatively to the survey, but it doesn't take much to have those numbers drop (remember, less than a million in 2000, doesn't take much to have those numbers drop). At a million players, that gives us around 10%.

Extrapolating, it's not hard to say these numbers, even if hype and somewhat flawed in how they were gotten, actually could be a pretty good representation of the percentages of who is playing.


IMO.

UM I got two people in at matinee for under $10.

 

[jasper]

Modern Language Association, takes a few seconds to google

I find the following
Maine Libary association
Maryland Libary association
Massachuetts libary association
Member of Legistative Assembly
Master of Liberal Arts
Master of Landscaping and Architecture
Meow Love Anytime
Montana Luna assoiciation
etc.

 

[jasper]

WOTC can ignore the 55+ demographic at their peril!

yes it depends on if we wake up from our naps to protest and not buy the books. It depends on our depends to make through a four hour session with out leaks.

 

[mamba]

I find the following

I searched for ‘mla two spaces’ and from there it was easy

 

[Parmandur]

Mooch Loot and Arson?

It's a formatting style, like APA or Turabian.