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

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Not to be pendantic, but how are we defining a big hit? Because by the 1982, D&D was a household name. It wasn't as successful as it is now, but when you put in an appearance in the biggest movie of the year, E.T., you've pretty much arrived. I suspect most of the people playing D&D from 1974 through a significant portion of the 1980s would mostly been boomers.

Do you? I think many of them would still count as GenX. Didn't it have a LOT of kids playing it then, even though it wasn't what they'd originally intended?

 

[Starfox]

Likely they just call everyone born before (whatever relevant date) Gen-X.

 

[codo]

Not to be pendantic, but how are we defining a big hit? Because by the 1982, D&D was a household name. It wasn't as successful as it is now, but when you put in an appearance in the biggest movie of the year, E.T., you've pretty much arrived. I suspect most of the people playing D&D from 1974 through a significant portion of the 1980s would mostly been boomers.

How many people playing d&d in the 70's were actually in their 20s or 30? A bit before my time, but from my understanding it was mostly teens and pre-teens. The people playing D&D in ET are like 12 years old.

 

[Micah Sweet]

what financial gain is it that they are getting?

"Hey look! According to WotC, everyone is playing D&D! We should buy WotC's stuff too so we can play D&D!"

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Likely they just call everyone born before (whatever relevant date) Gen-X.

That's probably true, but it's also probably because it really mostly represents GenX.

 

[Micah Sweet]

And that makes them liars who are misrepresenting themselves for financial gain? If anyone ever disagrees with your definition of a word they must be lying?

Of course not, but I doubt I'm alone in thinking that D&D is more than the books WotC is currently selling or planning to sell.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

How many people playing d&d in the 70's were actually in their 20s or 30? A bit before my time, but from my understanding it was mostly teens and pre-teens. The people playing D&D in ET are like 12 years old.

Yeah, Eliot isn't a boomer. He's GenX. Heck, Drew Barrymore is at the YOUNG end of GenX (not that she was playing D&D in ET, but she was Eliot's sister, right?)

 

[Lanefan]

the statement says nothing about who kept playing and who did not. It said ' 2E AD&D remained the dominant "I started playing" version' until 5e. So fewer people started with 1e, 3e, or 4e

Seems to simply be indicating that for some reason those who started with 2e had more "staying power" than those who started with 0e, BX, or 1e..

Also, for many the 2e they started with was likely some sort of mashup of BX, 1e, and 2e anyway.

If 1e had more than 2e, then the statement in itself would be a weird way to phrase this to me, 3e and 4e definitely could not have had more than 2e. And this still has to account for players upgrading from 1e to 2e, which reduces the number of players starting with 2e.

For 3e-4e, if speculation is correct that it's mostly 5e players who are answering the surveys then those who started with 3xe or 4e would naturally be under-represented; because they're still playing those editions (or close enough) and never jumped to 5e.

 

[Micah Sweet]

These numbers were from a press summit discussing plans for the current edition. Even if you are right that they somehow "misrepresented" what people are playing, something you have no evidence for, it doesn't matter. We're getting secondhand information about a PR event discussing the current edition. The demographics barely register as a footnote in their overall presentation.

Why would they care if people are playing variants they don't publish or older versions of D&D? How would it have been at all relevant?

It wouldn't be, to them. But D&D is more than what WotC is currently selling or planning to sell, and they're saying it isn't. That is misrepresentation.

 

[Reef]

How many people playing d&d in the 70's were actually in their 20s or 30? A bit before my time, but from my understanding it was mostly teens and pre-teens. The people playing D&D in ET are like 12 years old.

Yeah, I started when I was 11 in 1982. Boomers were my parents. Throughout my entire teen years, I don’t think I ran into one adult who played. Not saying they didn’t exist, but by far the majority of us in game stores were teens (that I ever saw).