Roll20 Now Has 10 Million Users

Roll20's user base has doubled since 2020, and is now at a height of 10 million users.

In 2020 Roll20 had 5 million users, and it had 3 million users two years before that. In February 2021 it reported 8 million users.

A recent blog post says that "From 2017 to the end of 2019, Roll20 grew five times over (in both staff and revenue), and the pandemic more than doubled that growth."

Dicebreaker reports that the platform reported in a press release that new updates were coming, including a UI overhaul, performance improvements, and new features for GMs.

In other news, Roll20 now has a new CEO, Ankit Lal. Nolan T. Jones,co-founder of the company, is stepping back.

 

[Hussar]

That's awesome. The more loving VTT's get, the better they get. I've played on VTT's since OpenRPG back in 2002. Competition means all sorts of innovation.

And, the more these VTT's draw in huge user numbers, the closer we'll be to some of the bigger companies with bigger budgets, doing dedicated 5e VTT's.

 

[Rabulias]

Those of us who didn't buy stuff on DnDBeyond are out of luck on Foundry. It's a 5e desert - nothing on there at all.

There is the SRD content there for free, but yes, if you are looking for any official WotC D&D adventures or content outside the SRD, Foundry does not have that. I have found for my homebrew game the SRD is a solid starting point, and I can easily add non-SRD creatures, items, and spells as we go.

 

[WageMage]

Roll20's user base has doubled since 2020, and is now at a height of 10 million users.

View attachment 152320

In 2020 Roll20 had 5 million users, and it had 3 million users two years before that. In February 2021 it reported 8 million users.

A recent blog post says that "From 2017 to the end of 2019, Roll20 grew five times over (in both staff and revenue), and the pandemic more than doubled that growth."

Dicebreaker reports that the platform reported in a press release that new updates were coming, including a UI overhaul, performance improvements, and new features for GMs.

In other news, Roll20 now has a new CEO, Ankit Lal. Nolan T. Jones,co-founder of the company, is stepping back.

Our group moved to other meeting applications after trying RollD20 at the beginning of the pandemic.

I really want to love RollD20, but found the call quality dips a lot. Maybe we'll give it another shot sometime!

 

[Morrus]

Our group moved to other meeting applications after trying RollD20 at the beginning of the pandemic.

I really want to love RollD20, but found the call quality dips a lot. Maybe we'll give it another shot sometime!

Do people use it for the video calling? We usually have Zoom for that, and Roll20 for the battle maps/character sheets/dice rolling.

 

[Jer]

Do people use it for the video calling? We usually have Zoom for that, and Roll20 for the battle maps/character sheets/dice rolling.

Yeah - we use outside video/audio software for that as well - Roll20 is just for our maps actually. For us even dice rolling is generally done offline except by a few players who like the online roller, and most of the character sheets we keep in a shared Google Docs folder.

We tried using the video chat option in it early on and it was just so bad - it was easier to have a Zoom or a Google Meet or even a Discord session open along with the Roll20 session than to try to use their calling software.

 

[WageMage]

Do people use it for the video calling? We usually have Zoom for that, and Roll20 for the battle maps/character sheets/dice rolling.

I guess my group is more theater of the mind folks lol!

I really do like all the maps and such, but the video feed can churn (in my experience). We moved to other apps and just use the whiteboards for maps.

We did try using both D20 and Zoom, but some of my colleagues computers can't handle the load of running too many applications.

But admittedly, the last we tried RollD20 was at the beginning of the pandemic.

 

[eyeheartawk]

If Foundry had official 5e support (and to be clear, it has unofficial 5e SRD plug ins) it would be far and away the best paid choice. It's got a good interface, and only the GM has to pay the $50 fee once. The 5e thing is really the only thing holding it back imo.

 

[thullgrim]

Roll20 organic voice and video chat is horrendous. We used Discord for chat and when we switched to Foundry we continued that practice.

I currently run on Foundry but have maintained my Roll20 sub for the last year just in case. Mostly for its 4e implementation. There is a 4e module for Foundry that looks promising but if I get serious about 4e I’ll use FGU. It’s fully functional.

When the pandemic hit and we went online Roll20 was simple to get up and running and worked despite its flaws. That simplicity helped us continue to game as we got comfortable moving online and I’m grateful for that.

 

[Retreater]

The 5e thing is really the only thing holding it back imo.

And that's a pretty considerable thing, when 5e is the biggest TTRPG in the history of TTRPGs.
Foundry's support for many other systems is also DIY. Not to mention the steeper learning curve regarding tracking countless modules, self-hosting (or getting a paid one), constant updates that change settings and features, harder to add custom tokens/maps/etc. (Roll20 you can drop it in - Foundry requires putting in folders, creating files, setting token features - which I can't even do while I'm running a game.)
Free League and Cubicle 7 have good official support. Paizo just sort of lets fans do what they want. Nothing else is even serviceable on Foundry. I know this because I've been searching for games to run for my group on Foundry - there's just not much that has any degree of official support - which means you are adding every monster, every spell, every feat, every ancestry, every class, every map and adventure location.

 

[eyeheartawk]

And that's a pretty considerable thing, when 5e is the biggest TTRPG in the history of TTRPGs.
Foundry's support for many other systems is also DIY. Not to mention the steeper learning curve regarding tracking countless modules, self-hosting (or getting a paid one), constant updates that change settings and features, harder to add custom tokens/maps/etc. (Roll20 you can drop it in - Foundry requires putting in folders, creating files, setting token features - which I can't even do while I'm running a game.)
Free League and Cubicle 7 have good official support. Paizo just sort of lets fans do what they want. Nothing else is even serviceable on Foundry. I know this because I've been searching for games to run for my group on Foundry - there's just not much that has any degree of official support - which means you are adding every monster, every spell, every feat, every ancestry, every class, every map and adventure location.

Yeah, I agree on that stuff. I think Goodman Games also has good official Foundry support, but yes, if the game doesn't have "official" support it is more work. Which definitely holds it back.