WotC 2020 Was The Best Year Ever For Dungeons & Dragons

[doctorbadwolf]

It's a pretty common reaction for someone to make when you're celebrating one group of people becoming a smaller minority. One that apparently one other person made as well.

Replace a word with another group:

"More men are joining the hobby! Women are getting more and more outnumbered! "

And you're honestly asking why someone, like a woman, might feel like your intentions weren't all that great when you're celebrating that?

Except that is disingenuous. In fact, it’s more like “More women are joining the hobby! Men are getting more and more outnumbered! ”

If you think that would be offensive, I’ve got nothing else to say on the subject that doesn’t get into politics.

 

[Azzy]

May I request/reserve the epithet "Babbling Old Fool" for myself please?

I'm somewhere between Fool on the Hill and Fool in the Rain.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

My guess is the pandemic had a huge influence on D&D's growth last year. We shouldn't start screaming doom and gloom of 2021 shows relatively modest growth.

The Pandemic isn't over yet and so far VRGtRL seems to have sold incredibly well as far as I can tell, and we don't know what is yet to come, we still have 3 major projects and who knows how many minor projects.

 

[Reynard]

The Pandemic isn't over yet and so far VRGtRL seems to have sold incredibly well as far as I can tell, and we don't know what is yet to come, we still have 3 major projects and who knows how many minor projects.

I think you missed my point: it is likely that a lot of people entered the hobby in 2020 due to the specific conditions caused by the pandemic and the specific strengths of D&D under those conditions. Many of those people would have entered the hobby anyway but at more of a trickle. Therefore it is entirely reasonable that growth in 2021 will be down compared to 2020. We should not take that as evidence that D&D has peaked or is dying.

As to book sales,I presume WotC will continue to produce items of similar quality so sales trends are likely to continue. I wouldn't expect to see anything really surprising or experimental from WotC in the short term. But in a few years as all these new gamers search for different experiences we might see WotC try and hang on to them with something more daring.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I think you missed my point: it is likely that a lot of people entered the hobby in 2020 due to the specific conditions caused by the pandemic and the specific strengths of D&D under those conditions. Many of those people would have entered the hobby anyway but at more of a trickle. Therefore it is entirely reasonable that growth in 2021 will be down compared to 2020. We should not take that as evidence that D&D has peaked or is dying.

As to book sales,I presume WotC will continue to produce items of similar quality so sales trends are likely to continue. I wouldn't expect to see anything really surprising or experimental from WotC in the short term. But in a few years as all these new gamers search for different experiences we might see WotC try and hang on to them with something more daring.

I think one way WotC plans on sustaining high growth this year is by using AFR to tempt MtG players to D&D and vis versa.

 

[Reynard]

I think one way WotC plans on sustaining high growth this year is by using AFR to tempt MtG players to D&D and vis versa.

Maybe. I don't follow Magic much so I don't have any sense of how it fared under the pandemic. I know my FLGS stopped Friday night Magic well before coronovirus hit.

 

[Parmandur]

Maybe. I don't follow Magic much so I don't have any sense of how it fared under the pandemic. I know my FLGS stopped Friday night Magic well before coronovirus hit.

Magic also had their biggest year ever, by a longshot: Arena was still up, and cards were still being sold in Target and Walmart, which stayed open. Competitive Magic stalled and died, though, but apparently that's a small fraction of WotC Magic business.

 

[Scribe]

Competitive Magic stalled and died, though, but apparently that's a small fraction of WotC Magic business.

There a post mortum on that yet? I've had my doubts competitive play would survive for years due to their design/development choices. Curious how they finally killed it.

 

[Parmandur]

There a post mortum on that yet? I've had my doubts competitive play would survive for years due to their design/development choices. Curious how they finally killed it.

Well, they are cutting the Pro League entirely, which socks for the people losing the people losing jobs, and say they are going to redistribute funds for more prizes in regional tournaments. We'll see how it goes, but they made sure to emphasize to the Pros that WotC is not looking to provide a sustainable living tonanyine through competitive Magic anymore.

 

[Cadence]

Well, they are cutting the Pro League entirely, which socks for the people losing the people losing jobs, and say they are going to redistribute funds for more prizes in regional tournaments. We'll see how it goes, but they made sure to emphasize to the Pros that WotC is not looking to provide a sustainable living tonanyine through competitive Magic anymore.

How many pros were getting a "sustainable living" anyway, unless they had a side gig writing for SCG or something similar?