Another Year of EN World Demographics!

As I did last year, this is a look at EN World's demographics. This period is June 2020 to June 2021. The data reflects over 5M unique visitors and tens of millions of page views. The short version -- over the last year, the user base has become younger, and (slightly: 3%) less male. The average EN World reader is now an 18-24 year-old American male (last year it was a 25-34 year-old American...

As I did last year, this is a look at EN World's demographics. This period is June 2020 to June 2021. The data reflects over 5M unique visitors and tens of millions of page views. The short version -- over the last year, the user base has become younger, and (slightly: 3%) less male. The average EN World reader is now an 18-24 year-old American male (last year it was a 25-34 year-old American male).

As before, you can compare these stats to WotC's official Stats for D&D. The most recent figures can be found here.

Age
So last year the dominant age group on the site was 25-34. This year, it's younger - the 18-24 group is the largest. Like last year, EN World skews a little younger than D&D's overall player base, with a higher percentage in the lower age groups, and a lower percentage in the highest age groups. Note that GA doesn't measure under 18s.

enwusersage.png


Gender
Next is the gender data. Google Analytics only provides male and female data, and no data for non-binary people. Within those constraints, 83% of the visitors are male, and 17% female. Last year, 14% were female, so that's an increase of 3%. Still not enough, but headed in the correct direction. According to WotC, 40% of the player base is female and just below 1% is non-binary. So there's still work to be done there!

mf.jpg



Geography
This hasn't changed much from last year. America dominates the chart, with other primarily English-speaking countries behind it. Brazil has more of a presence than any EU country. The EU in general is only about 5% of the user base.

CountryPercentage
United States59.7%
United Kingdom8.3%
Canada7.5%
Australia3.3%
Brazil2.3%
Germany2.3%
Italy1.5%
Netherlands1.3%
Spain0.9%
Sweden0.8%
France0.8%

What do they look at?
The most popular page on the site - unsurprisingly - is the news page, with 12% of the views. Now, bear in mind that each forum thread is a page, so the site has hundreds of thousands of pages and we have tens of millions of page views. That means that a page getting more than a single percentage of the views is a very popular page -- no non-news page has managed that.

About Google Analytics
These are anonymized aggregate stats collected by Google. We only have access to the data in aggregate.
 

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imagineGod

Legend
I think the goal of D&D is to have fun roleplaying with your friends, not teaching math.
We are talking basic addition and subtraction, not abstract algebra. Though I would love a revival of Al-Qadim, but with more authentic representation of the mathematically beautiful architecture from The Golden Age of Islam and less racist stereotypes of Middle Eastern culture.

D&(D really needs to look East. The real world's youth demographics are learning heavily in that direction.

One reason I love the Coriolis RPG ftom Free League for its Golden Age of Islam inspired Futurism. Prayers and science work well in that region of the world and the RPG brings that cultural harmony into space opera. With an aesthetics homage too.
 


D&D really needs to look East. The real world's youth demographics are learning heavily in that direction.

I don't know if that is true. That seems like a bold claim. But I myself would welcome more eastern influences in addition to the default pseudo-lord of the rings and Western fairytales that D&D mostly leans to. There is a treasure trove of myths and legends out there that would enrich D&D greatly. I own the complete illustrated Tales of 1001 Nights (one of many versions that exist) and it is truly wonderful. Since Wizards of the Coast is fully committed to wide representation, I'd love to see more eastern material.
 



I know it's virtually impossible to get this kind of data, but it would be amazing to get a breakdown of what people in different age groups are playing. D&D will always get the lion's share, but are younger players playing narrative games at a higher rate than older gamers? Or is it the opposite, since people sometimes need time in the trad/F20 trenches before they start pining for fewer rules?

I feel like we can all speculate in every direction, but it'd just be speculation.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
I know it's virtually impossible to get this kind of data, but it would be amazing to get a breakdown of what people in different age groups are playing. D&D will always get the lion's share, but are younger players playing narrative games at a higher rate than older gamers? Or is it the opposite, since people sometimes need time in the trad/F20 trenches before they start pining for fewer rules?

I feel like we can all speculate in every direction, but it'd just be speculation.
It's not impossible, it's just expensive. If you have the budget you can survey anything. But reach doesn't come cheap.
 

Sure. I think we've had many, many heated <ahem> discussions around here regarding rules and art from the good old days that just wouldn't fly today though I don't believe advertisements are typically included. In TSR's defense, they also feature women and girls in some of their print and television advertisements as players. I mean women and girls who aren't wearing a cheetah print onesie or a tight silver futuristic outfit (see Elise Gygax's Gamma World photo).


Can you imagine a TV commercial for a TTRPG now? Madness! Though I'm actually a tiny bit surprised that WotC isn't doing YouTube (etc.) ads.
 

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