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

 

[Micah Sweet]

I get what you're saying, but . . . . being dead does kinda affect your continued playing of the game . . . .



EDIT: Well, unless there is a God, and they are good, and have D&D clubs up in Heaven . . . .

God I hope so.

 

[MGibster]

Well, here's the exact verbiage from the article:

"According to Wizards’ surveys, the player population recently crossed a point where the majority of current D&D plans are those who started playing the game with the fifth edition. Previously, the most popular version of D&D was still the second edition, published in 1989. (“We actually built fifth edition as a follow-up to second edition,” Crawford said at the panel.)"

While I played 1st edition a little, I consider 2nd edition to be the one I started with because in 1989 that's when I had enough funds to start buying my own books. I would have expected more people to have started with 3.0 or 3.5. This is surprising to me.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You challenging them by making claims you can't possibly back up with any verifiable data on a forum they likely don't care about? What is that supposed to change?

Perhaps it will convince a few people here that, despite the terms they use, WotC is not talking about all D&D players.

 

[mamba]

Well, here's the exact verbiage from the article:

"According to Wizards’ surveys, the player population recently crossed a point where the majority of current D&D plans are those who started playing the game with the fifth edition. Previously, the most popular version of D&D was still the second edition, published in 1989. (“We actually built fifth edition as a follow-up to second edition,” Crawford said at the panel.)"

ah, that maybe helps square this circle. If the intent was to say 'of the active players, more started with 2e than with any other edition, until recently 5e overtook it as the leading edition active players started with'

That might work, still a bit surprising to me, but at least it makes more sense than 'more people started playing D&D with 2e than with any other edition, until 5e recently surpassed it'

 

[Minigiant]

I don't follow what you're saying then. The "less than 1%" statistic is talking about playing D&D, not existing or being alive in real life. One does not directly affect the other.

Proportions.

There are more (or about the same) Boomers alive today as Xers alive today.
D&D existed when Boomers existed and they played the game.

Therefore in order for Xers to be 19% of D&D gamers and Boomers being statistically invisible then either

1) There are 15-20 times as many Gen Xers playing D&D than Boomers despite Boomers being equal or greater in population and having more free time due to having fewer minor children and more likely to be retired
or
2) The "D&D" in the D&D player base is only a subset of D&D (ie one edition) that Boomer D&D typically do not fancy.
or
3) The numbers are off or the survey has an error in which actual Boomer numbers were not recorded, lumped in another group, or skewed through the method of surveying.

The number should be small but not less than 1%.

 

[Oofta]

ah, that maybe helps square this circle. If the intent was to say 'of the active players, more started with 2e than with any other edition, until recently 5e overtook it as the leading edition active players started with'

That might work, still a bit surprising to me, but at least it makes more sense than 'more people started playing D&D with 2e than with any other edition, until 5e recently surpassed it'

I can certainly see how 2E was the inspiration for 5E. At the time they had decided that 4E was not the right direction and 3.x had it's own issues, not to mention that PF 1E was basically D&D 3.75 for those people that wanted that level of crunch.

We also have to remember that they kind of viewed 5E as a Hail Mary, and never expected it to be the runaway success that it turned out to be. They were hoping to keep the IP alive so they could potentially expand into other areas of entertainment.

 

[Oofta]

Proportions.

There are more (or about the same) Boomers alive today as Xers alive today.
D&D existed when Boomers existed and they played the game.

Therefore in order for Xers to be 19% of D&D gamers and Boomers being statistically invisible then either

1) There are 15-20 times as many Gen Xers playing D&D than Boomers despite Boomers being equal or greater in population and having more free time due to having fewer minor children and more likely to be retired
or
2) The "D&D" in the D&D player base is only a subset of D&D (ie one edition) that Boomer D&D typically do not fancy.
or
3) The numbers are off or the survey has an error in which actual Boomer numbers were not recorded, lumped in another group, or skewed through the method of surveying.

The number should be small but not less than 1%.

Doesn't necessarily follow if only 20% or less of baby boomers were in the demographic that were around when D&D became popular. Very few older boomers picked up the game back then. If the game had been released and successful in the 50s or 60s, maybe. But you're off by at least a couple decades.

 

[mamba]

Proportions.

There are more (or about the same) Boomers alive today as Xers alive today.
D&D existed when Boomers existed and they played the game.

yes, but it existed towards the tail end of Boomers and squarely hit the Gen X-ers. So maybe 25% of Boomers still fell into the 'could maybe have played it' group that all Gen X-ers are in.

Therefore in order for Xers to be 19% of D&D gamers and Boomers being statistically invisible then either

1) There are 15-20 times as many Gen Xers playing D&D than Boomers despite Boomers being equal or greater in population and having more free time due to having fewer minor children and more likely to be retired
or
2) The "D&D" in the D&D player base is only a subset of D&D (ie one edition) that Boomer D&D typically do not fancy.
or
3) The numbers are off or the survey has an error in which actual Boomer numbers were not recorded, lumped in another group, or skewed through the method of surveying.

The number should be small but not less than 1%.

I am going with a mix of 2 and 3. For one this most likely are 5e numbers, given that they come from WotC surveys, for another I assume that Boomers are simply lumped in with Gen X-ers rather than being so few that they become a rounding error

 

[Parmandur]

While I played 1st edition a little, I consider 2nd edition to be the one I started with because in 1989 that's when I had enough funds to start buying my own books. I would have expected more people to have started with 3.0 or 3.5. This is surprising to me.

Right, even more surprising that they admit this. I doubt WotC would have wanted to Dmitry in 2007, say, that 3E had mostly appealed to 2E players rather than growing the brand...

ah, that maybe helps square this circle. If the intent was to say 'of the active players, more started with 2e than with any other edition, until recently 5e overtook it as the leading edition active players started with'

That might work, still a bit surprising to me, but at least it makes more sense than 'more people started playing D&D with 2e than with any other edition, until 5e recently surpassed it'

I agree, it is very surprising, but I tend to believe it must be true due to the principle of embarrassment: I doubt Crawford would make up 3E, 3.5 and 4E failing when he worked on them.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I can certainly see how 2E was the inspiration for 5E. At the time they had decided that 4E was not the right direction and 3.x had it's own issues, not to mention that PF 1E was basically D&D 3.75 for those people that wanted that level of crunch.

We also have to remember that they kind of viewed 5E as a Hail Mary, and never expected it to be the runaway success that it turned out to be. They were hoping to keep the IP alive so they could potentially expand into other areas of entertainment.

5e's resemblance to 2e is one of the big things that drew me to it. Unfortunately for me, it's been getting farther and farther away from that spirit as time has gone on.