Roll20's Latest Report Shows Growth Everywhere!

Roll20 has released its latest usage stats. These are from Quarter 1 2020, and while there isn't much change in the relative ranks of different games since 2019, they report that nearly everything has doubled during these pandemic times when a lot of gaming has shifted online to virtual tabletops like this.

Since Q4 2019, D&D has climbed back up (from a previous drop) from 47.54% to 50.4% of campaigns. Call of Cthulhu has dropped from 15.35% to 12.15%. Pathfinder has dropped from 4.97% to 4.49% (but Pathfinder 2E has climbed from 1.13% to 1.23%), and Warhammer has dropped from 1.48% to 1.3%. World of Darkness and Star Wars both also show drops. Note these are relative shares, not absolute figures -- in most cases the actual number of games has increased. Notably, Call of Cthulhu remains the second most popular game on Roll20 by a large margin.

The first chart below shows the campaigns run for each system, and the second shows the players. Roll20 says that only games with at least one hour of playtime are counted in these results.

Those with the biggest growth are HeroQuest (4000%!), Old School Essentiants, Blades in the Dark, and L5R.

Here's the full chart. One of these days I'll put all this data (and the Fantasy Grounds data) on a combined chart like the one I do for ICv2 stats.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Paizo has said many times that their direct sales are significantly less than what is sold over Amazon. Because the lower price of books, faster delivery, and much, much, MUCH lower shipping prices attract buyers.

Interesting, given how folks seem dead set on the whole "I buy the hardcopy and I get the PDF too" thing, including it constantly being brought up as a negative point against WOTC that they don't offer that like Paizo does, if most folks buy Pathfinder don't actually get that either.

 

[Retreater]

Interesting, given how folks seem dead set on the whole "I buy the hardcopy and I get the PDF too" thing, including it constantly being brought up as a negative point against WOTC that they don't offer that like Paizo does, if most folks buy Pathfinder don't actually get that either.

True, but at least we get a free character builder app, online rules of everything, etc. The tools available for Pathfinder online (with the exception of Roll20) far exceeds D&D.

 

[Jester David]

Interesting, given how folks seem dead set on the whole "I buy the hardcopy and I get the PDF too" thing, including it constantly being brought up as a negative point against WOTC that they don't offer that like Paizo does, if most folks buy Pathfinder don't actually get that either.

It’s almost like the people arguing about those points on forums are a minority and non-representative of gamers as a whole.

Also, free PDFs only applies to subscribers. You need to buy separately otherwise, so you might as well get it off Amazon.

 

[Retreater]

The issue with treating data the way you are treating it is that your anecdote vs. my anecdote has no clear answer which one is in line with more anecdotes than the other, so we don't actually have enough evidence between us (even among this whole forum with the roll20 reports to boot) to accurately answer the question "Is it a huge success?" one way or the other.

Very true. My anecdote is only one of many and should not be taken larger than anyone else's. And anecdotes are only one measure and give an incomplete picture of how widely the system is being adopted. For example, in Morrus's area it seems to be going pretty well. And it might have been that I went to an Origins event at an unpopular time and maybe most other Pathfinder Playtest events were packed.
I am not an industry insider. I am a fan, and my anecdotes are more like those of trained weather spotters who see cloud rotation and report storms in their immediate area. I can say PF2 isn't doing great at being widely adopted in these parts (which I would classify as the American Midwest).
My group, so far, is having a mixed reaction. I get a little frustrated running it, partially because I get confused because of the similarities and differences between PF1, D&D5, and PF2, and also due to the lack of integration into Roll20 (which I am using solely for play these days). Out of my current 4 player group, I would say two are really enjoying it, one sees potential in it once she learns the system (and thinks she'll prefer it to D&D5), and one guy who dislikes learning new systems and prefers PF1.

 

[Mournblade94]

Amazing to me that 3.5 is still very much in the picture. Really shows how much a mistake 4E was.

I still Play 3rd edition. I run one 5e game because people want to fiddle the rules. But I vastly prefer 3rd edition with some things from Pathfinder.

 

[Mournblade94]

I wonder how many of the systems at the bottom of the list are just the designers testing them.

I'm one of the 0.02% In HERO

 

[Retreater]

It’s almost like the people arguing about those points on forums are a minority and non-representative of gamers as a whole.

Also, free PDFs only applies to subscribers. You need to buy separately otherwise, so you might as well get it off Amazon.

I think you get a small discount on Roll20 if you buy Paizo products and have your Roll20 account linked to your Paizo account, so that's something. Not the same as getting a free PDF, but it helps.
Thought I'd add this since I'm complaining so much about PF2 on Roll20.

 

[Mournblade94]

....I'm not entirely sure what point you're trying to make. It's like fun with statistics. HeroQuest grew 4066%! That's a lot more impressive.

PF2, a system which is brand-new and should be experiencing massive growth (replacing PF1), had approximately the same growth as six-year old 5e (199% - 192%).

I apologize if I'm not making my point very clearly, but I will try one more time:

1. Yes, they grew.

2. They barely outperformed the overall average.

3. They are basically tied with 5e.

4. Usually, you see people moving on to a new system in the first six months.

5. As such, this is not a great sign. It does not appear that PF2 is either converting all of PF1 and D&D3 holdouts, nor does it appear to be attracting non-PF players (given that the decline in PF1 > the increase in PF2).

6. Again, lies, damn lies, and statistics, and it's not like the companies are telling us what is going on. But this has to be very disappointing. I hope I'm wrong, but we will see.

That is my point. I don't think I can explain it any better.

I know personally the only reason I played PF was because it was 3.5. When they switched to a new system there was no reason for me to switch to the system. If I wanted a new system I'd just stick with 5th edition. The change to PF2 makes sense from a business perspective, but I wasn't about to switch because I have a full library of 3rd edition books, and AD&D book that I can't use with PF2.

 

[JFranklin3000]

I will say it is probably too early to know where this edition will end up. 9 months is really not that much time to get an idea of where the system will end up. 4e for example was still ahead of PF, 9 months after it was released. PF1's big explosion started after the APG was released. Not that PF2 will do the same this time around with 5e on the market, but I think we are really a year or two away from really knowing how this will shake out. Most game systems to hit there stride in a short time (5e and PF being 2 recent exceptions).

 

[Jimmy Dick]

I'd say a lot of people have drawn erroneous conclusions based on what they want the results to be and are ignoring the reality of the world around them. But I can't change your minds. All I can do is to continue running and playing PFS2 sessions with the growing audience of players, the players who switched over from 1e totally, the players who play both editions, and then run sessions at the cons where 2e continues to overtake and pass 1e table counts.

We saw an extremely large and enthusiastic crowd at Gen Con last year. We saw the books practically sell out. We continue to see the online region grow for PFS2. If you can't handle those facts, then I'm not going to argue when your position is not based on facts, but rather on what you want to believe.

Have a nice day.