D&D 5E How Important is Stranger Things to the Success of 5e

[CleverNickName]

My nieces and nephews (age 13 and 17), when I told them that I was going to play Dungeons & Dragons later that evening, immediately responded with "Oh yeah! That's that game from Stranger Things right?"

Then two weeks later, I overheard my nephew telling his sister about the trailer for the new D&D movie. "They're making a movie out of that game from Stranger Things," he said. "What a weird idea for a spin-off!" And I felt myself immediately age 1000 years.

So I voted #2, begrudgingly. I don't like it, but I have to call it how I see it.

 

[Charlaquin]

I haven't seen it on Tarhet store shelves in a long while, so...probably not that great relatively.

However, Stranger zthings has a humongous audience. Just going by thr numbers, a huge number of people will have had the though of checking out D&D introduced to them by the show.

Yeah, I’m sure that has happened, I just think the number of people who have gotten into D&D because of it likely relatively small compared to people who have gotten into it through other channels, most notably Critical Role and word of mouth.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

My nieces and nephews, when I told them that I was going to play Dungeons & Dragons later that evening, immediately responded with "Oh yeah! That's that game from Stranger Things right?"

Then two weeks later, I overheard my nephew telling his sister about the trailer for the new D&D movie. "They're making a movie out of that game from Stranger Things," he said. "What a weird idea for a spin-off!" And I felt myself immediately age 1000 years.

Oh. Wow.

Kind of like how I feel when people talk about how they have just discovered Kate Bush, I guess.

Curse you, ravages of time! It sucks when you get to the age and you see shows and movies and you're like, "Ugh, why are they rebooting that," and then you realize that the majority of the target audience wasn't alive when it was originally done.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yeah, I’m sure that has happened, I just think the number of people who have gotten into D&D because of it likely relatively small compared to people who have gotten into it through other channels, most notably Critical Role and word of mouth.

Sure, but at what point does it be considered a significant number of people? If we have 50 million people playing D&D and a million joined because of Stranger Things, is that not significant, because 15 of them joined through word of mouth and 20 from Critical Role? (Or whatever?) It's still a million people!

 

[Medic]

That just proves you're not a True D&D Fan™
If you didn't get into D&D from watching Critical Role™ then you suck, simple as.

Anyone who didn't get into the hobby with Kriegsspiel is not a real fan, in my opinion.

 

[Charlaquin]

Sure, but at what point does it be considered a significant number of people? If we have 50 million people playing D&D and a million joined because of Stranger Things, is that not significant, because 15 of them joined through word of mouth and 20 from Critical Role? (Or whatever?) It's still a million people!

Proportion is what matters when it comes to significance. One million is a big number, but it’s only one fiftieth (or .02%) of 50 million. Is that a large enough portion to be considered significant? Probably in that case. I think you have to get down to a third decimal place (so less than half a million given 50 million D&D players) to be an insignificant portion.

EDIT: And I don’t think Stranger Things has had an insignificant impact, just a relatively small one.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Proportion is what matters when it comes to significance. One million is a big number, but it’s only one fiftieth (or .02%) of 50 million. Is that a large enough portion to be considered significant? Probably in that case. I think you have to get down to a third decimal place (so less than half a million given 50 million D&D players) to be an insignificant portion.

....NO ONE TOLD ME THERE'D BE MATH!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Proportion is what matters when it comes to significance. One million is a big number, but it’s only one fiftieth (or .02%) of 50 million. Is that a large enough portion to be considered significant? Probably in that case. I think you have to get down to a third decimal place (so less than half a million given 50 million D&D players) to be an insignificant portion.

EDIT: And I don’t think Stranger Things has had an insignificant impact, just a relatively small one.

Sure, YMMV but I'd call a million people significant regardless of total-number, myself.

But I'd agree with you that it's relatively small when compared to other factors. (Something can be both small and significant, after all).

You know, assuming we had any numbers, which we don't. And probably can't, seeing as there must be a number of people who got into D&D from Stranger Things that don't even know themselves that it was the thing that pushed them to grab it. That's just how people are.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I think 5e's success and D&D suddenly being cool is a confluence of events. Stranger Things made D&D look cool. Stranger Things' success is tied into and fuels a general nostalgia trend (one I am certainly not immune to). But it also has introduced people that weren't even alive for the 80s the first time to embrace that culture. And D&D is a part of the nostalgia payload delivered to viewers.

But 5e also came out swinging on its own merits. And you had Critical Role rising to prominence, not to mention the rise of actual play streaming in general. Wizards started doing prominent televised live plays and announcements that weren't just streaming videos, but full-on events. Hollywood celebrities were openly talking about playing D&D. You had Death Saves' launch, which explicitly said D&D is cool, D&D is metal.

Stranger Things is a giant hit. Millions of people that have never played a game of D&D know the names Demogorgon, Mind Flayer, Vecna. I wouldn't call it the most important factor, but I think it's in the top five, to be sure.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I have. I've sold many Starter Sets to someone who mentioned Stranger Things while buying it.

I mean, I didn't personally ring in every starter set I've sold in the last 5 years, I have employees, and most people don't mention why they're buying anything, so there could be quite a few people who did that I don't know about, so the per cent could be anything, really, but I can say for certain that some people do, and it's not an insignificant number. (Depending on your definition of significant, I suppose).

I feel like mentioning Stranger Things is pretty different from it being the cause. I think if you look at things in your life, you often the pop-culture touchstone that's associated with something, not the actual thing that got you interested. But as you say, we can't know for sure.

Sure, YMMV but I'd call a million people significant regardless of total-number, myself.

That's obviously illogical/irrational in this context, though. This isn't like "deaths caused by" or something, where that would make sense. This is looking at the factors involved. And those are relative, and if 0.02% if "significant" then virtually everything is "significant", which means the term is meaningless.