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 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.

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!

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.

Country	Percentage
United States	59.7%
United Kingdom	8.3%
Canada	7.5%
Australia	3.3%
Brazil	2.3%
Germany	2.3%
Italy	1.5%
Netherlands	1.3%
Spain	0.9%
Sweden	0.8%
France	0.8%

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.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

TSR's marketing folks were only slightly better than their accountants.

 

[MGibster]

Yes but they also had this–

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).

 

[Hurin70]

Nearly 80% of the forumgoers are 34 or under.

Man these demographics make me feel old.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I'm in the younger group of the two 39%s. Interesting that this site and the D&D community as a whole are getting younger and less and less male-dominant (in numbers, that is). All good changes, too (and no, I don't mean this offensively towards the Grognards on this site. It's just a matter of fact that hobbies need new players to continue on, and it's better for communities to not be so divided based on gender).

 

[Eyes of Nine]

4th Edition, I am ashamed to admit I actually played and liked it.

Do not be ashamed! There are legions of us here on ENWorld and elsewhere. And 4th was a good game. Maybe not what people wanted or expected in their D&D; but it was a good game in and of itself.

 

[MGibster]

I'm in the younger group of the two 39%s. Interesting that this site and the D&D community as a whole are getting younger and less and less male-dominant (in numbers, that is). All good changes, too (and no, I don't mean this offensively towards the Grognards on this site. It's just a matter of life that hobbies need new players to continue on, and it's better for communities to not be so divided based on gender).

Back in 2013, Harley Davidson claims that the average age of their customer is 47 but others dispute that saying their average customer was over 50 at the time. For more than a decade now, Harley Davidson has engaged in outreach to attract not only younger customers but also minorities and women as well but they're meeting with limited success. Younger people tend to purchase motorcycles for more practical reasons including easy of transportation and cost whereas older customers purchase them for recreation and can afford the expense of a Harley. So if Harley doesn't turn things around they're in for a world of hurt as their customers die off and aren't replaced by the next generation of riders.

So I'm with you that it's a good thing younger people are the primary D&D customer. I'm not the future of gaming, they are. I don't always agree with the changes that cater to their preferences, but at the end of the day if you want to survive you've got to cater to your primary customer base. No hard feelings from me. And it's nice to see role playing games thrive again.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Back in 2013, Harley Davidson claims that the average age of their customer is 47 but others dispute that saying their average customer was over 50 at the time. For more than a decade now, Harley Davidson has engaged in outreach to attract not only younger customers but also minorities and women as well but they're meeting with limited success.

Partnering with Aerosmith, of all acts, to promote the brand seems to be them doubling down on Baby Boomers and Gen X. Whoever is in charge of their outreach to younger consumers is getting paid to do very, very little real work.

 

[Bolongo]

"the 18-24 group is the largest"
Really? Maybe by a fraction of a percent that the pie chart doesn't show?

"The EU in general is only about 5% of the user base."
Adding up just the EU countries in the table, I get 7.6%. Presumably there's some smaller countries that didn't get listed that would bump that total up a bit. (Considering that the whole chart only comes to 88.7%)

 

[imagineGod]

Don't confuse your tastes with the capabilities of the people who will be running the world when you're trying to remember where the bifocals on top of your head are. (They're on top of your head, I just told you.)

We have to be hones,t, no need to be cute about the next generation that will lead the U. S A. Math allergy is an American problem. Probably, why each new edition of D&D targeted primarily at Americans is hiding away the math of the game.

Many a time, I met Asian kids more than happy to add numbers mentally, especially Chinese and Japanese youths And many times, I have seen American teens pull out their mobile phone calculator to do something as simple as stacking bonuses in 4th edition.

Math allergies in the U.S A. are just another reason the world now looks to China. Over 1.6 billion people, that is the future, not the U.S.A

And, Whizbang, be grateful that there are many Indian migrants in the medical profession to take care of you. Yes, the world's future heads East. The West is an Empire in decline.. Just India and China alone, two nations with a third of all the world's teenagers. That is the future D&D market.

I mentioned several times on these forums, the next D&D fantasy setting should by about mythic India. Kids in America need to look Eastwards.

 

[imagineGod]

To ensure the next D&D is not dumbed down further mathematically, we need to introduce katas to American children.

My Indian teacher ensured I practiced both math kata and code kata.. That ensures you react almost instinctively, when you see numbers, you automatically know the totals. It is not magic, just a learned technique.

As simple as it sounds, Kata involves deliberate, repetitive practice to master. In martial arts, kata is choreographed patterns of movement that are practiced.