Roll20 RPG Usage Stats: Growth Everywhere During Pandemic!

Roll20 has posted its latest Industry Report, revealing that the first quarter of 2020 shows growth for almost every game on its platform during the pandemic. D&D, of course, remains by far the most popular (up from 50% to 53% after a dip last year), with Call of Cthulhu and Pathfinder coming in behind. Call of Cthulhu has seen a bit of a drop from 12% to 8.5%, while Pathfinder is approximately steady.

(See the Quarter 1 2020 report here).

Cyberpunk Red saw high growth of over 100%, as did Tormenta, City of Mist, and the Year Zero Engine.

Here's the full list!

 

[Retreater]

The first PF2 AP is on the Roll20 marketplace now. It wasn't for a good while, but it looks like Roll20's PF2 support has grown a fair bit over the past few months.

I just searched and didn't find Age of Ashes on there. If you see it, post me a link. I have been putting in hours every week putting this on Roll20, and that would save me a lot of work.

 

[Darrius_Adler]

Makes me a little happy to see Godbound actually on the list (tiny percentage but there). It has become one of my favorite games in the past year or so.

 

[CapnZapp]

I wouldn't put much weight on any change less than a full 1%.

A game losing or gaining a tenth of a percent is a blip in the system, not proof it is gaining or losing popularity.

 

[Ibrandul]

I wouldn't put much weight on any change less than a full 1%.

A game losing or gaining a tenth of a percent is a blip in the system, not proof it is gaining or losing popularity.

Well, most games have less than a tenth of a percent total. So it makes a big difference for those games.

 

[Teemu]

I just searched and didn't find Age of Ashes on there. If you see it, post me a link. I have been putting in hours every week putting this on Roll20, and that would save me a lot of work.

My bad, I confused the two APs, Age of Ashes and the circus one. For a good while there were no PF2 APs on Roll20.

 

[macd21]

Well, most games have less than a tenth of a percent total. So it makes a big difference for those games.

Not really. At those percentages, there’s just very few people playing the game on Roll20, which means a handful of people starting or ending campaigns can result in a comparatively large change in the %, while saying little to nothing about the relative popularity about the game.

 

[Jack Hooligan]

It's like sports leagues. MLB and the NBA do well when the Yankees and Lakers are doing well. Like them or not they draw attention and but butts in seats. Fans love to cheer or jeer them. When those teams are down it has been proven to actually be shown as less healthy periods for the respective sport. It doesn't mean more fans in the stands at small market teams.

It seems each industry is best served by a clear market leader that others can then thrive off of. I will assume RPGs are no different. A decline in D&D isn't going to mean an increase in players for all the small, independent titles. A decline in D&D playing is going to mean a decline in people role-playing. Period.

 

[CapnZapp]

Well, most games have less than a tenth of a percent total. So it makes a big difference for those games.

That's not how statistics work.

 

[Blue]

That's not how statistics work.

If a game goes from 0.18% player share to 0.28% (or 0.08%) player share that's not a big change in absolute number of players that system?

 

[Ibrandul]

That's not how statistics work.

I'm not a statistician. So maybe I do misunderstand how statistics work. If so, I'm happy to learn.

There are a lot of people playing on Roll20. The site has more than four million users. So one tenth of one percent of them is not a tiny number. Even if the vast majority of those four million accounts don't play in any given quarter, one tenth of one percent of them is at least 100 people.

Let's say I'm looking for a group on Roll20 to to join, to play my favorite obscure RPG.

Let's say that last quarter there were only 20 people on Roll20 playing in campaigns of my favorite obscure RPG.

And let's say that now there are 120 people on Roll20 playing in campaigns of my favorite obscure RPG.

It's a lot easier to join a group on Roll20 to play my favorite obscure RPG now than it was before.

The increase of less than a tenth of one percent (of total players of all RPGs on Roll20) has made a big difference for that game, and for me.

What exactly am I misunderstanding about statistics here?