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

 

[jmartkdr2]

I think there's probably a correlation between buyers and players - and while they haven't shared it publicly I'm also sure WotC has a pretty good guess about what that ratio is. They know 1 million book doesn't mean 1 million players - but they do know it means about 750,000 (or whatever the number is.)

 

[Azzy]

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

I love evidence-free speculations.

 

[bedir than]

I would definitely want to know more about the methodology of this survey before I put much stock in it, especially since WotC, who no doubt conducted or commissioned it, is presumably only interested in getting at information about their customers or potential customers, not all the people off engaging in "D&D as folk tradition" who presumably skew substantially older, and who may not be substantial WotC customers but are most certainly D&D players. Even ignoring the extremes, I'm guessing their ability to get accurate data and their interest in doing so both wane the further one gets from being a regular WotC customer.

Which is all just to say that in WotC's mind, "D&D player" and "WotC D&D customer" are often more perfectly synonymous than the community at large would consider those concepts.

Wizards is very much interested in those people who play "D&D as folk tradition." There's a reason they're licensing the cartoon characters onto figurines in Target, or in the movie, or in the boxed set, or on t-shirts. There's a reason you can get high end versions of the older book covers too.

It's not because Wizards is ignoring you.

 

[Parmandur]

Wizards is very much interested in those people who play "D&D as folk tradition." There's a reason they're licensing the cartoon characters onto figurines in Target, or in the movie, or in the boxed set, or on t-shirts. There's a reason you can get high end versions of the older book covers too.

It's not because Wizards is ignoring you.

Indeed, maybe what WptC is doing is following the actual folk tradition as it grows and evolves...?

 

[schneeland]

Perhaps, from what I see around me (anecdotal I know but still) WotC is losing the older audience. It started a couple of years ago and it only been growing. Like it or not the older audience is the one with money in its pocket and generally the one with the widest circle of potential new players to recruit, be it family or friends.

The real shame is what happened to the D&D movie, instead of taking the kids to the cinema to watch the movie folks stayed home, despite the great word of mouth it received simply because of a general distrust in WotC coupled with getting burned by marvel phase 4.

I agree about the first part, but not necessarily about the second: being at the tail end of the millennial bracket (i.e. early 40s), there's a notable number of people in my friend circles, and in the communities I'm active in, who, game-wise, are done with 5e, and WotC-D&D in general. However, many went to see the D&D movie and the feedback was almost universally positive.
In fact, while I don't see myself buying any WotC-D&D book anytime soon, I'd gladly watch another D&D movie (assuming it was following in the footsteps of the current one).

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Wizards is very much interested in those people who play "D&D as folk tradition." There's a reason they're licensing the cartoon characters onto figurines in Target, or in the movie, or in the boxed set, or on t-shirts. There's a reason you can get high end versions of the older book covers too.

It's not because Wizards is ignoring you.

Perhaps.

Really all I was getting at is that in this case we are discussing data which, not only went through the inherent problems of surveys, but is reported secondhand from WotC's cherrypicked highlight "facts", and that there is an additional filter that WotC, at some times for some purposes, probably defines "D&D player" differently than you or I would.

I would be interested to see the actual data collected on players with the survey's methodology, but I'm not going to put any stock in what we learned of it here as filtered down to us through three extra lenses.

 

[bedir than]

Perhaps.

Really all I was getting at is that in this case we are discussing data which, not only went through the inherent problems of surveys, but is reported secondhand from WotC's cherrypicked highlight "facts", and that there is an additional filter that WotC, at some times for some purposes, probably defines "D&D player" differently than you or I would.

I would be interested to see the actual data collected on players with the survey's methodology, but I'm not going to put any stock in what we learned of it here as filtered down to us through three extra lenses.

Well, there's no evidence that they were using only data collected via the public surveys. Marketing professionals will also have access to the data from social media, search and the many websites they collect data on.

The only people who say this is just from the surveys they've taken/ignored are in this thread.

Geekwire didn't make that claim.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Well, there's no evidence that they were using only data collected via the public surveys. Marketing professionals will also have access to the data from social media, search and the many websites they collect data on.

The only people who say this is just from the surveys they've taken/ignored are in this thread.

Geekwire didn't make that claim.

That just emphasizes my point if we don't even know what the nature of the data collection here is at all.

These reported statistics, as they have reached us, are so attenuated from whatever actual information WotC has that I just don't see the point of paying them mind.

 

[Parmandur]

That just emphasizes my point if we don't even know what the nature of the data collection here is at all.

These reported statistics, as they have reached us, are so attenuated from whatever actual information WotC has that I just don't see the point of paying them mind.

What we believe about the data doesn't matter, how WotC sees and responds to the data they have does. And their behavior matches a rational reaction to the data being as they say here.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

What we believe about the data doesn't matter, how WotC sees and responds to the data they have does. And their behavior matches a rational reaction to the data being as they say here.

Or their data, as presented, is curated to justify their behavior.

Look, I'm not some sort of anti-WotC hardliner conspiracy theorist, I own Hasbro stock for goodness sake. I'm not someone who rants about their agendas or whatever, I don't know to what extent they have one, and I don't care. But when a corpo, whomever they work for, goes out to give a presentation I guarantee you they are presenting the data that makes the way they and their bosses have been doing their job look as good as possible.

But I guess that just reinforces your point that this is only interesting information as in pertains to the thinking of WotC, whether or not the thinking is following the data or the data following the thinking.