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

 

[clearstream]

Tiny flying dinosaurs
Finns
They're equally improbable
Honestly

 

[Charlaquin]

Tiny flying dinosaurs
Finns
They're equally improbable
Honestly

Whereas to the conspiracy theorists, I’m on the opposite end of the probability spectrum from birds and Finns. Got Q-angles for days.

 

[Hussar]

Let's hope they've improved since 1999 then, when they were baking selection bias right in.

But the point you keep ignoring is every single piece of evidence before and after 1999 says EXACTLY the same thing about the age spread.

 

[Wangalade]

"The majority of current D&D players started with 5th Edition"

This should probably say the majority of 5e dnd players, and players we know about.

Even if it is market research and not just a survey, a lot of their data probably comes from many of their online surveys and looking at online numbers on dnd beyond and roll20, etc. They have no idea about the offline space, even of 5e players who play offline. There's really no way to have accurate market data for "d&d" in general because of the nature of play. Someone can buy a single(or 3) book and be playing constantly without wotc ever knowing about it, and this applies to every single edition of dnd over the last 40+ years. So for for wotc to report on total number of players worldwide, or people who have ever played the game, or which edition most people started with, it's not something really based on reality because they have no idea. Now specific numbers from roll20 or dnd beyond or surveys can be more interesting because they are more specific, but when talking about the wider d&d player base, take any blanket statements about that with a grain of salt.

 

[Parmandur]

I've played RPGs with maybe 70 people over the years and of those maybe 10 were born after 1984. (and some of the 10 were children of the other 60)

My personal experience suggests that most people who play D&D are Phillipino (I'm not, but a major percentage of the people I've evwr played with are), but I tend to doubt that actuslly reflects the broader population.

I graduated from College in 2007, so fellow Millenials are my school cohort, and nobody older than in me in family circles happens be into this sort of thing.

I never thought about that, because I read magazines, books and forums filled with Boomer and Gen X commentary so I know the Ways of the Elder Grognards, but...my experience is purely Millenial/Zoomer/Alpha.

 

[Parmandur]

Let's hope they've improved since 1999 then, when they were baking selection bias right in.

I mean, maybe theybhad good reason to, then and now.

 

[Parmandur]

"The majority of current D&D players started with 5th Edition"

This should probably say the majority of 5e dnd players, and players we know about.

Even if it is market research and not just a survey, a lot of their data probably comes from many of their online surveys and looking at online numbers on dnd beyond and roll20, etc. They have no idea about the offline space, even of 5e players who play offline. There's really no way to have accurate market data for "d&d" in general because of the nature of play. Someone can buy a single(or 3) book and be playing constantly without wotc ever knowing about it, and this applies to every single edition of dnd over the last 40+ years. So for for wotc to report on total number of players worldwide, or people who have ever played the game, or which edition most people started with, it's not something really based on reality because they have no idea. Now specific numbers from roll20 or dnd beyond or surveys can be more interesting because they are more specific, but when talking about the wider d&d player base, take any blanket statements about that with a grain of salt.

After 10 years of surging popularity, it is probsvly accurate that most D&D people, peruod, started withb5E.

The interesting thing theybadmitnisnthst before very recently, the leader 2E, nor any WotC Edition. So 3E, 3.5, and 4E totally failed to grow the player base like 2E did.

 

[Wangalade]

After 10 years of surging popularity, it is probsvly accurate that most D&D people, peruod, started withb5E.

The interesting thing theybadmitnisnthst before very recently, the leader 2E, nor any WotC Edition. So 3E, 3.5, and 4E totally failed to grow the player base like 2E did.

I do agree that the player base from 5e of current players(including older editions and retroclones and pathfinder) is probably the largest, but thats based on feeling and my own experience, not evidence.

WOTC likes to make blanket statements about the dnd marketplace, players in general, or the popularity/growth of dnd that are not based on any viable evidence. They don't have any evidence to back up these claims, and if they do they're not releasing the data so there is no way to verify their statements.

 

[nevin]

"The majority of current D&D players started with 5th Edition"

This should probably say the majority of 5e dnd players, and players we know about.

Even if it is market research and not just a survey, a lot of their data probably comes from many of their online surveys and looking at online numbers on dnd beyond and roll20, etc. They have no idea about the offline space, even of 5e players who play offline. There's really no way to have accurate market data for "d&d" in general because of the nature of play. Someone can buy a single(or 3) book and be playing constantly without wotc ever knowing about it, and this applies to every single edition of dnd over the last 40+ years. So for for wotc to report on total number of players worldwide, or people who have ever played the game, or which edition most people started with, it's not something really based on reality because they have no idea. Now specific numbers from roll20 or dnd beyond or surveys can be more interesting because they are more specific, but when talking about the wider d&d player base, take any blanket statements about that with a grain of salt.

surveys in general these days are very inaccurate. Most people even the young ones don't answer them.

 

[Parmandur]

I do agree that the player base from 5e of current players(including older editions and retroclones and pathfinder) is probably the largest, but thats based on feeling and my own experience, not evidence.

WOTC likes to make blanket statements about the dnd marketplace, players in general, or the popularity/growth of dnd that are not based on any viable evidence. They don't have any evidence to back up these claims, and if they do they're not releasing the data so there is no way to verify their statements.

The evidence is a trade secret, so yeah, they won't release it.