A Look At EN World's Stats & Demographics

EN World is an old community by internet standards - 16 years old! When it started, there was no Facebook or Twitter, WotC was being run by Peter Adkison and Ryan Dancey, Pathfinder wasn't even a glimmer in Jason Bulmahn's eye, and D&D was launching its 3rd edition. The forums had only about 4,000 members! Decades pass, and things change, and I thought it would be fun to take a peek at the demographics of this community's members. With over half a million individual users in the last 30 days, making millions of pageviews, a look at Google Analytics can reveal a lot of data on who is browsing EN World. No surprise, male Americans make the largest group, but there are increases in other countries. Note that all this data is aggregate, anonymous and from Google's analytics service. Consider this a sort of New Year "State of EN World" thing.

Overall traffic -- 3.9 million unique visitors over the year with 0.5 million in the last 30 days; over 11 million separate user sessions and tens of millions of pageviews. 77.3% are returning visitors and 32.7% are new.

The overall audience shows age and gender. That has changed a lot in recent years -- the age is skewing lower than it used to. In particular, the 18-24 group has grown considerably. Sadly, the gender disparity, although slightly better, is still not even close to equal, with 92.4% of the traffic being male. I don't know what the overall disparity of actual players is, so I couldn't tell you whether that is representative or not. Note that this is (see the popular pages below) largely people just reading the news, not necessarily participating in the community.

The following data is interesting. The US used to be around 80% of traffic, but it seems more locations are swinging by these days. Desktop browser usage has been dropping for years, and it's now starting to approach 50%. Another few years, and it'll be the minority. Social network referrals show that Facebook is by far the largest source of social network traffic, followed by Reddit. Social networks, however, only provide 4.5% of traffic overall with most of it coming directly from organic Google searches.

LOCATION	DEVICES	REFERRALS	*SOCIAL NETWORKS
USA 60.73% Canada 7.95% UK 6.84% Australia 3.88% Brazil 1.95% Germany 1.95% Italy 1.62 Netherlands 1.28% France 1.15% Sweden 0.94%	Desktop 57.56% Mobile 35.99% Tablet 6.45%	Organic Search 74.8% Direct 16.1% Social Networks* 4.5% Website Links 4.7% Other 0.46% Email 0% (62 people!)	Facebook 41.92% Reddit 24.83% Blogger 18.39% Twitter 6.9% Google+ 2.8% Stack Exchange 2.19% Pinterest 1.43% VKontakte 0.45% Wikia 0.4% StumbleUpon 0.2%

The table below shows the most popular areas of EN World. The news page takes in over 50% of the traffic by itself, but that's no shock.

1. Front/news page
2. D&D 5th Edition forum
3. Character Sheets
4. Character Builds & Optimization forum
5. Media Lounge forum
7. Play-by-post forums
8. General RPG forum





The list below shows the most common search queries which landed people on EN World. Very D&D 5E oriented, as one might expect. I like "elf puns".

[UPDATE - I did this wrong before; this is the correct list]

1.	unknown
2.	enworld
3.	en world
4.	(not set)
5.	enworld.org
6.	enworld 5e
7.	enworld forum
8.	dungeons and dragons forum
9.	homebrewing-a-world-help-me-out
10.	delta green
11.	mystara 5e
12.	http://www.enworld.org/
13.	breaking up with pathfinder rpg
14.	enword
15.	why does 5e suck mishihari site
16.	rape-culture-and-the-matriarchy-a-twist-on-elves-let-s-do-it-right
17.	d&d reddit monster
18.	www.enworld.org
19.	cache:http://www.enworld.org/forum/forum.php
20.	dnd 5th edition character builder
21.	enlarge person spell also gain size increase
22.	gish d&d
23.	d&d 5e dex fighter
24.	rpg downloads
25.	princes of the apocalypse review
26.	kobald press tome of beasts list
27.	shadow of the demonlord en world
28.	enworld 5e forum
29.	5e favored soul
30.	5e character sheet
31.	doomvault site
32.	5e dungeons and dragons long rest interrupted
33.	d&d 5e wizard guide
34.	5e fighter guide charop
35.	5e wizard guide
36.	traveller d20 srd
37.	d&d intellect devourer
38.	dark obelisk kickstarter
39.	enworld forums
40.	hoard of the dragon queen errata
41.	enworld ua ranger
42.	wand of viscid globs overpowered
43.	d&d 5e sorcerer
44.	dnd forum
45.	heist site:enworld.org
46.	chris perkins the dm experience
47.	d&d 5e sorcerer guide
48.	what-are-the-options-for-living-without-ddi
49.	dungeons and dragons 5th edition monster cards
50.	utility power 4e
51.	d&d 5e fighter guide
52.	aughisky d&d
53.	d&d 5e character builder
54.	hoard of the dragon queen
55.	5e grapple
56.	volo's guide to monsters new races
57.	d&d 5e rogue guide
58.	d-d-s-lead-increases-stars-without-number-surges-in-latest-orr-group-report
59.	map greyhawk
60.	d&d 5e character sheet
61.	5e warlock guide
62.	pathfinder steal combat maneuver
63.	5e great weapon master d12 axe
64.	savage worlds tokens
65.	sword coast bladesinger
66.	"social skills"
67.	phandalin population
68.	bladesinger 5e
69.	campaign log site
70.	d&d 5e goblin stats
71.	spelljammer 5e
72.	titansgrave season 2
73.	5e highest passive perception
74.	recommended-magic-item-creation-alternative-rules
75.	en world forum
76.	bullgrit blog
77.	chronicles of the gatekeeper review
78.	dragon+ on computer
79.	converting conan to 5e
80.	tyranny of dragons errata
81.	d&d 5e what counts as not wearing armor
82.	"night's dark terror" podcast
83.	5e sorcerer guide
84.	the-treasure-map-rg
85.	conan rpg monster tokens
86.	d and d 5e witch
87.	d&d 5e rogue
88.	empire of nerath
89.	5e sorcerer
90.	d&d character sheets
91.	dungeon mapping software
92.	iarno albrek
93.	arcane trickster 5th edition
94.	d&d 5e warlock
95.	d&d 5e
96.	shannara 5th edition d&d
97.	5e unarmored defense
98.	d&d 5e pixie
99.	enworld.com
100.	ocupied space blade barrier

CONCLUSION - it's clear that the largest audience grouping here is male American D&D players. The audience size itself has increased over the year month on month, exceeding half a million unique users each month. That's a lot of people! The most popular page is the front/news page (not surprising) followed by the D&D 5th Edition forum. Areas where I'd like to improve include more coverage of non-D&D games (lots of that coming this year with our paid freelance articles program to be run by Chris Helton) and a broader, more representative sample of visitors.

The largest behavioural grouping by far from regular visitors is folks who come along and read the news. That has always been the busiest part of the sites and continues to be.



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[Cergorach]

What I find interesting is the source countries of the viewers, while those numbers are of course massive, people forget how many people actually live in those countries...

USA 60.73% [325M]
Canada 7.95% [36M]
UK 6.84% [65M]
Australia 3.88% [24M]
Brazil 1.95% [206M]
Germany 1.95% [82M]
Italy 1.62 [61M]
Netherlands 1.28% [17M]
France 1.15% [67M]
Sweden 0.94% [10M]

That gives a whole different view on how much ENworld has insinuated itself within a certain population => how many visitors per 1,000 citizens...

Sweden might have the lowest % of visitors on the list, but it's also a tiny country (population wise), that means that a significant percentage of the population visits ENworld, and that for a country whose primary language isn't English. Canada is doing better then the USA...

 

[Philature]

The female to male ratio is fairly poor; EN should try to do something about that.

 

[MNblockhead]

Another mid-40s gamer who was happily surprised to see the how young most of the users are. The front page vs the forums makes sense to me. I read the front page every day. A while back, when I got back into role-playing games I tried to read and participate in the forums, but they are soooooo long that I've given up reading and trying to keep up with them. When I have a 5e question, I just google it and skim whatever blog posts and forums give answers, whether that be reddit, EnWorld, or some other source. Generally I now tend to go with trusted bloggers. For me EnWorld is a news site more than a forum--seems like that may be the experience for most visitors. That said, when you have an RPG-related question you can't find a satisfactory answer for from Google, there is no better place to post it than En World.

 

[MNblockhead]

The female to male ratio is fairly poor; EN should try to do something about that.

What should it do? EnWorld has posted very high-profile articles on women in gaming. I suppose they could post even MORE of such articles, but at some point, I think women gamers want to read about--you know-- gaming, same stuff guy gamers read about. I don't know that women gamers are going to be so attracted by problems-women-face-in-gaming articles.

I don't read the forums here that much, maybe there is a lot of female-unfriendly behavior, but I've not seen it. Beside, most people come here for the news and the articles highlighted on the news page certainly run from neutral to inclusive.

I think that it is more about the medium. Where I see the greatest participation of women role-players is on video sites, like Twitch, and the fan communities around them.

Perhaps Internet bulletin board / forums are more attractive to men? Don't know, but I'm sure someone has done research on which forms of on-line social media are more popular with which genders.

If EnWorld has the resources and interests to host video shows, that might help.

 

[Morrus]

Generally speaking (the gender divide aside) the stats are very encouraging. We're doing something right! Lots of young folks flocking to the site, which is exactly what I'd want.

 

[Philature]

Generally speaking (the gender divide aside) the stats are very encouraging. We're doing something right! Lots of young folks flocking to the site, which is exactly what I'd want.

I have to agree with you Morrus, the age demographic is great!

 

[Philature]

If EnWorld has the resources and interests to host video shows, that might help.

I agree a lot of good article about woman in RPG tabletop gaming have been done by EN.

Actually, EN World video content would be really cool (regardless of the gender issue)!

 

[Capn Charlie]

I agree a lot of good article about woman in RPG tabletop gaming have been done by EN.

Actually, EN World video content would be really cool (regardless of the gender issue)!

Why isn't there an enworld video channel, again? I'd like to see a weekly show reviewing dmsguild content, for sure. Find it a good female host/announcer/face and call it "Guildmistress" or something, if that isn't too much on the nose.

 

[Morrus]

Why isn't there an enworld video channel, again?

https://www.youtube.com/c/ENWorldrpg

I'd like to see a weekly show reviewing dmsguild content, for sure.

That's not exactly a non-trivial task. Especially since I have never even looked at a DMsG item!

 

[Capn Charlie]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaZ7ByBXPqZRg-Q-J-_0YEA



That's not exactly a non-trivial task. Especially since I have never even looked at a DMsG item!

I was just pointing out an underserved market as a for instance. But yeah, the enworld brand seems to be fairly strong, with these numbers, but it is... not reaching out. The newest video is 5 months old and is about a dog with a steak for a hat. Not really the home of rpgs on the web.

Could this be a community project, perhaps? Open casting for videos of presenters, and see where it goes?

I've made a tour of rpg forums recently, and enworld is a pretty bright spot in a dull universe, it has a lot of potential.