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

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Everyone who's really upset about this study, I have a side question: Why do you care?

Cartoon Network isn't making cartoons that appeal to me, but I don't need them to. I can get my entertainment options elsewhere.

Why does WotC need to be producing games for you and your friends, rather than you picking up a game -- including previous versions of D&D or retroclones -- that does appeal more to you?

Is there something critical about Wizards of the Coast, specifically, catering to you, specifically, or is this just a freak-out about getting older and the marketing eye of Sauron moving on to someone else?

 

[Dire Bare]

I'm not claiming to either. I'm making suggestions about motivations, because a question was asked about feelings. Whether or not I even agree with the suggestions I'm making, or if I do whether or not I feel its unfair of WotC, is immaterial.

I think I get you here, even though we often disagree on things. I'm kinda suprised nobody else here seems to be understanding your point.

It's not about how @Micah Sweet feels about D&D today. It's not that WotC IS ignoring older fans. It's not that all older fans are grumpy and feeling left out.

It's that the older fans who ARE grumpy and feeling left out are making emotion-based arguments, not fact-based arguments. The game has left them behind, due to it no longer catering directly to them. Or at least, that's how some older gamers perceive things.

I mean, if your favorite game moves forward and changes in a way that makes you feel left behind . . . . its reasonable to feel upset about that.

That's what I'm getting from your recent posts, I hope I'm not misunderstanding or misrepresenting your point.

However, WotC isn't ignoring older fans, they are just focusing on younger fans. Many older fans are enjoying the current direction of the game and don't feel left behind. The percentage of gamers who are no longer in the target demographic and are not happy with the direction of D&D are not a large group of people. But they can be LOUD on the forums.

Sucks getting old! At least for folks who can't roll with the times!

 

[Minigiant]

I'm sincerely sorry you're feeling neglected. I can see why that probably sucks. But suggesting it's because of some game-wide plan to alienate older players is a weird way to explain it. Isn't it more reasonable (considering the pushback your theory is getting), that it just has more to do with your general preferences and not your age?

And the whole thing seems less about WOTC alienating older fans and more the other way around.

I mean most of the people I've seen with the "There are only 4 classes and 4-6races and all orcs and goblins are evil" opinions tend to lean to the older side. And the "I don't need all these fancy mechanics and other types of foighting and magicks" I've hear came from faces with some gray on them. But Tabaxi, Echo Knights, Eldritch Blast, and Dragon Punches sell books so WOTC will continue to lean those ways.

So the DM who is "Champions, Thieves, Life Clerics, and Wizards of the 8 schools only. Human , Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Half Orc, Half elf,and Halfling only. No Feats. Only mutiliclassing in Racial Favored classes." is also not bying WOTC books. And WOTC likelyisn't willing to fight all the OSR publishers and OGL publishers for the pennies that DM will spend on them over the dollars other DMs will spend on Bootleg Harry Potter D&D.

It's a rapidly plummeting number. Baby Boomers used to tower over everyone, but now they're behind Millennials and Gen Z.

It is not a growth market, by any means.

But there are still a freaking lot of them. More than Gen X.

Again. If Gen X is 19% but Boomers are less than 1%, then either the survey is faulty or the survey is only for WOTC style D&D aka 5e.

There is no way I can believe of all D&D players of all editions, less than 1% are over ~56yo if the generation before them are still at 19%. I could maybe believe 2%. But less than 1% heavily hints to it being only 5e.

 

[Charlaquin]

He's not arguing for WotC to start worrying about old people's feelings.

He's just explaining that it may be WHY some older gamers refuse the reality of the game today.

Ok, but I was responding to someone saying it doesn’t make sense for the older demographic to be such a minority because the younger majority ages into being the older demographic. The fact that some people might reject the data because it makes them feel bad is entirely irrelevant to my explanation of how an influx of new young players could shrink the proportion of players in the older demographics, even if they had perfect retention from when they used to be the younger majority.

 

[Parmandur]

I think the moat interesting admission from WotC has nothing to so with generations, but the admission that 2E AD&D remained the dominant "I started playing" version until well into 5E. That speaks volumes about the problems 3E, 3.5, and 4E experienced in actually growing the brand.

 

[mamba]

Again. If Gen X is 19% but Boomers are less than 1%, then either the survey is faulty or the survey is only for WOTC style D&D aka 5e.

There is no way I can believe of all D&D players of all editions, less than 1% are over ~56yo if the generation before them are still at 19%. I could maybe believe 2%. But less than 1% heavily hints to it being only 5e.

I think it hints at them being lumped together.

Regardless of that, who do you expect to fill out a WotC survey, a 5e player or a 1e / OSR player? At a minimum they will be drowned out, because there are a lot more 5e players

 

[mamba]

I think the moat interesting admission from WotC has nothing to so with generations, but the admission that 2E AD&D remained the dominant "I started playing" version until well into 5E. That speaks volumes about the problems 3E, 3.5, and 4E experienced in actually growing the brand.

I do not understand that statement at all however, given that they sold around half as many 2e core books as 1e, and that sold slightly less than BX/BECMI for a while.

So I cannot get to that point at all

 

[Parmandur]

I do not understand that statement at all however, given that they sold around half as many 2e core books as 1e, and that sold slightly less than BX/BECMI for a while.

So I cannot get to that point at all

D&D is a group activity, so there isn't necked a 1-to-1 between book sales and players. There could be several reasons that originally 2E players outnumberpeople who started with 1E or Basic, but the telling thing is, coming from WotC directly, it's a pretty frank admission of problems with Editions that Crawford and Perkins actually worked on for WotC. Which is probably not something they meant to let slip.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think I get you here, even though we often disagree on things. I'm kinda suprised nobody else here seems to be understanding your point.

It's not about how @Micah Sweet feels about D&D today. It's not that WotC IS ignoring older fans. It's not that all older fans are grumpy and feeling left out.

It's that the older fans who ARE grumpy and feeling left out are making emotion-based arguments, not fact-based arguments. The game has left them behind, due to it no longer catering directly to them. Or at least, that's how some older gamers perceive things.

I mean, if your favorite game moves forward and changes in a way that makes you feel left behind . . . . its reasonable to feel upset about that.

That's what I'm getting from your recent posts, I hope I'm not misunderstanding or misrepresenting your point.

However, WotC isn't ignoring older fans, they are just focusing on younger fans. Many older fans are enjoying the current direction of the game and don't feel left behind. The percentage of gamers who are no longer in the target demographic and are not happy with the direction of D&D are not a large group of people. But they can be LOUD on the forums.

Sucks getting old! At least for folks who can't roll with the times!

This is what I'm saying, thank you. Personally I'm not happy about it either, but there's nothing to be done, and I have other games to play.

I do have a personal hot button regarding settings that WotC owns and what they're doing with them, but I accept this as a personal problem.

 

[Micah Sweet]

And the whole thing seems less about WOTC alienating older fans and more the other way around.

I mean most of the people I've seen with the "There are only 4 classes and 4-6races and all orcs and goblins are evil" opinions tend to lean to the older side. And the "I don't need all these fancy mechanics and other types of foighting and magicks" I've hear came from faces with some gray on them. But Tabaxi, Echo Knights, Eldritch Blast, and Dragon Punches sell books so WOTC will continue to lean those ways.

So the DM who is "Champions, Thieves, Life Clerics, and Wizards of the 8 schools only. Human , Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Half Orc, Half elf,and Halfling only. No Feats. Only mutiliclassing in Racial Favored classes." is also not bying WOTC books. And WOTC likelyisn't willing to fight all the OSR publishers and OGL publishers for the pennies that DM will spend on them over the dollars other DMs will spend on Bootleg Harry Potter D&D.


But there are still a freaking lot of them. More than Gen X.

Again. If Gen X is 19% but Boomers are less than 1%, then either the survey is faulty or the survey is only for WOTC style D&D aka 5e.

There is no way I can believe of all D&D players of all editions, less than 1% are over ~56yo if the generation before them are still at 19%. I could maybe believe 2%. But less than 1% heavily hints to it being only 5e.

I do have an issue, as I stated above, with the presentation that "all WotC customers" actually means "all D&D players". I'm sure the survey is pretty accurate under the first description, but they're using the second. Say what you mean!