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

 

[nevin]

if you think a download counts as much as a purchase when it comes to how many actual players you get from it, I got news for you…

lol Even one percent of the Downloads makes huge changes to thier numbers. But the point was they don't know and we don't know.

 

[nevin]

i don't think they do have an idea. I think they are doing what blizzard did. Ignoring everything but the data they want to see. We'll see if it works better than it did for blizzard long term.

 

[nevin]

Hasbro has changed theirs plans to become a media empire as Disney, at least this after the death of their CEO.

well it was a poor time to decide to become a media empire. All the other media empires are cannibalizing each other trying to keep profits up. Right now media is in the consolidation and lower profit stage where it cost more to get new subscribers than you'll ever make from them. That usually goes on for a long time. It's a very microsoft strategy. Wait till your sure it's a real thing and then jump in too late.

 

[mamba]

lol Even one percent of the Downloads makes huge changes to thier numbers. But the point was they don't know and we don't know.

I doubt it actually does. You can get all kinds of RPGs and D&D editions online

Might as well factor all this white noise out

 

[Willie the Duck]

This survey is highly suspect. It’s either bad methodology, a bad case of selection bias or a representation of older folks abandoning WorC 5e in favor of other systems.

Again, what survey? Has anyone been able to find anything except secondhand reporting with untrustworthy framing of even what we're looking at, much less the wording? I'm still strongly leaning toward Wizards had a 40+ or 45+ category in their data and Geekwire reported that as Gen X (not that literally less than 0.5% of the people reached by whatever data collection this was were boomer+) and/or that the actual population studied was something other than 'the D&D player population.'

Also, like… Milennials are still the largest portion of the audience according to this survey, and we range from late 20s to early 40s. And while as a group we may have less wealth than previous generations, most of us do have our own income, and plenty of us have enough disposable income to support our hobbies.

I also question how much total wealth matters. I think I spent more on RPGs --in real dollars (inflation adjusted or not), not as percent of income -- when I was a teenager working 5-20 hrs/week than I do now at ~50 working full time for high-level professional wages.

 

[nevin]

LMAO. At least 40 to 50% (IMO) of people downloading those games are planning to play them, and even if it's onlyt 10 percent the number is HUUUGE, as I said if even 1% of them do play them it move the needle on DND players quite a bit. Not necessarily those who play 5e but the original post was how many of which age group play dnd......not one particular flavor of it. So because you can't quantify it you ignore it. thanks for making my point that hasbro has stuck thier head in the sand and is only paying attention to the things they decide to see.

I suspect old flavors of DND have more players than 5e combined which is he key point Hasbro would like to bury.

As i said in another post. i think if hasbro treated DND like all it's other games with the exception of selling it on DND Beyond as a 10 to 15 dollar a month sub for access to all the books, then they could offer a 5 dollar add on for access to the old editions and sell dice and all the other glittery shiny things the whales want and they'd make far more than selling books. Books are sadly a very low profit item. Internet subs are a very High profit item. The key thing with this idea is then their old players wouldn't be competition and any old players that were just refusing to move on because of cost would have the new stuff right there ready to try as an extra for all the old stuff they were paying for.
Then treat it like monopoly. Just let it sit there and make money and slowly add to it or even just buy up 3rd party stuff and rebrand.

 

[Minigiant]

The truth is the players who liked the systems and lore of old editions either stuck with the old editions or retro lines.

If you don't convert to WOTC DND, you wont be a large percentage of WOTC DND.

 

[mamba]

LMAO. At least 40 to 50% (IMO) of people downloading those games are planning to play them, and even if it's onlyt 10 percent the number is HUUUGE, as I said if even 1% of them do play them it move the needle on DND players quite a bit.

really? I am surprised if this number were > 3%, people download all kinds of stuff for all kinds of reasons

I agree that we won’t get an accurate player count, but I doubt we are that far off either. And I do not see the percentages in player ages or between editions / different TTRPGs shifting all that much either because of piracy. You can find 1e/2e as easily as 5e.

If you have some hard data on this, let me know, otherwise I go with the more general piracy logic

Not necessarily those who play 5e but the original post was how many of which age group play dnd......not one particular flavor of it.

no, it was about percentages of the different age groups, not number of players

So because you can't quantify it you ignore it. thanks for making my point that hasbro has stuck thier head in the sand and is only paying attention to the things they decide to see.

No, I ignore it because 1) it does not drastically affect the percentages and 2) you overrate the significance of piracy, a lot

I suspect old flavors of DND have more players than 5e combined which is he key point Hasbro would like to bury.

I believe you are completely off. Ultimately, if they do but none of the players buy anything, then they might as well not exist for all their relevance to the TTRPG business

 

[Vaalingrade]

Yup.
After the PR fiasco with the OGL and the idiotic interview about emasculating men the majority of players in my area stayed at home and didn’t go to see the movie.

I had to look this up because as it turns out, only a certain corner of the internet cared for more than a nanosecond, but man that's hilarious. 'Oh no, mah manliness is threatened by the movie about the children's game I enjoy!'. Sad, fragile Alphas are the best.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

There is a difference between players and people who spend their money into D&D products.

Usually children and teenages haven't enough money to spend in the hobby, and adults haven't enough time to play.

Online VTTs can change radically the hobby, but if Hasbro could make a lot of money like this, then some videogame studios could start to add a VTT mode for their multiplayer online videogames for roleplay mode. There is also some risks, for example if a VTT allows a matchmaking with unknown people, then somebody could be the "wrong person".

Hasbro should think seriously the strategy about the no-English-speaker market. If rival companies played better their own cards, then selling there will be harder. Let's remember Disney has releases its own card videgames. Epic Games could use the engine of Unreal to create a VTT, recycling lots of elements from Fortnite.

* In the past lots of novels were published. Why not again? I want to guess they are awaiting until the reboot of the D&D multiverse after that event linked with Vecna and the black obelisks.