D&D General As of 1998, 4,007,685 people played AD&D in the US, as estimated by Ben Riggs.

[John Lloyd1]

Shannon Appelcline thinks it could be much larger, due to bigger groups (10-20 people in some cases) and the fact that people go in and out of them, so individual DMs could have many players. Ryan Dancy thinks it‘s a reasonable estimate, probably the right order of magnitude, within a few million of the correct number.

Or fewer players. When I played in high school it was just the three of us. I can't remember how many DMGs we had.

 

[Stormonu]

@Stormonu arnt the RPGA zine distribution numbers known?

They might be. But as I recall, it was possible to join the RPGA before they started putting/giving out the 'zines (I think I did) with every membership.

 

[Parmandur]

@overgeeked do you think he then way underestimated?

I think he makes a couple problematic assumptions that ends up doing that, yes (assuming only half of book buyers ran the game,or that the revision wasn't all new dales stand out), that I would take WotC official late 90's numbers of 20 million more seriously.

 

[Parmandur]

To many assumptions.

My groups for example were 5 or 6 players and people came and went so I probably played AD&D with 20 odd individuals.

They weren't all active players but they experienced it.

I suspect not much has changed.

I remember WotC claiming 6 million players 1999 or so. They probably just attached a number of players to each dmg perhaps including the floaters.

Oh, did they say 6 million? Where was the 20 million figure in my head from...

 

[Parmandur]

Shannon Appelcline thinks it could be much larger, due to bigger groups (10-20 people in some cases) and the fact that people go in and out of them, so individual DMs could have many players. Ryan Dancy thinks it‘s a reasonable estimate, probably the right order of magnitude, within a few million of the correct number.

Go8ng on @Zardnaar memory of WotC repoeting 6 million total when dancey was in charge of things, seems that's about right.

 

[Zardnaar]

Go8ng on @Zardnaar memory of WotC repoeting 6 million total when dancey was in charge of things, seems that's about right.

May have been Dragon magazine my memory isn't that good. May have even been an ad.

I can't remember if it was recent active players or lifetime players.

It was around 1999-2002 or so don't take it as gospel by any means.

 

[TwoSix]

I've done neither. I've pointed out that we only have Ben's word on those numbers. I've pointed out that he's making a long string of pure guesses and bad assumptions in his math to reach the number touted in this thread. That's neither condescending nor belittling. I get that people react poorly when someone they've decided to trust is questioned, but again that's neither condescending nor belittling.

It has nothing to do with questioning the sources, it's coming across as impolite while you do it.

LOL. Wow. What an absurdly terrible assumption.

Yea, people are going to call you out when you open like that. Tone matters.

 

[Parmandur]

May have been Dragon magazine my memory isn't that good. May have even been an ad.

I can't remember if it was recent active players or lifetime players.

It was around 1999-2002 or so don't take it as gospel by any means.

M.T. Black states the following, which as Dancey says is within spittingdistance of @BenRiggs Estimate:

"If we fast forward to the famous Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary released by Wizards of the Coast in the year 2000, we see they estimate the number of people in the United States playing any tabletop roleplaying game at least monthly to be 2.25 million, with a total number of 5.5 million having ever played a tabletop roleplaying game."

How many D&D players are there? — M.T. Black Games

This article presents an estimate of the number of people currently playing Dungeons & Dragons around the world and also discusses historical estimates.

www.mtblackgames.com

 

[a.everett1287]

It has nothing to do with questioning the sources, it's coming across as impolite while you do it.
Yea, people are going to call you out when you open like that. Tone matters.

Found it better to just block them, and so I did

 

[a.everett1287]

M.T. Black states the following, which as Dancey says is within spittingdistance of @BenRiggs Estimate:

"If we fast forward to the famous Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary released by Wizards of the Coast in the year 2000, we see they estimate the number of people in the United States playing any tabletop roleplaying game at least monthly to be 2.25 million, with a total number of 5.5 million having ever played a tabletop roleplaying game."

How many D&D players are there? — M.T. Black Games

This article presents an estimate of the number of people currently playing Dungeons & Dragons around the world and also discusses historical estimates.

www.mtblackgames.com

But I thought it was such a terrible assumption...