Charles Ryan speaks - 4.6 million Americans claim to play D&D

[Truth Seeker]

Hmmmm, why just State side numbers, why not too...worldwide?

To place the 4.6 million in perspective, here's a site showing the relative sizes of various American religious demoninations. Compare the number of D&Ders to relatively mainstream churches.

http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#religions


Nothing political, but at this size D&D should be a major market identifier for a whole slew of advertisers.

 

[MerricB]

I'd be curious to know whether the data used to make this claim differentiates between different editions of the game.

I'd say it'd be any edition of D&D. However, most D&D players don't buy supplements, anyway.

An increase in D&D players most likely relates to the newest edition, of course.

More important: are people who play only games like 'Neverwinter Nights', 'Temple of Elemental Evil', 'Baldur's Gate', the various D&D X-box games, etc. -- and who never/rarely take part in 'tabletop' sessions -- included as 'D&D players'?

I'd very much doubt it. I remember Charles saying that "the best year for D&D ever" (which last year was) didn't count novels, miniatures or computer game sales. They're pretty good at differentiating between these things. However, if you want more clarification, pop over to the Wizards boards and ask Charles yourself. I've given you the link above, and I'm sure he'll be more than happy to help clear things up.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

Hmmmm, why just State side numbers, why not too...worldwide?

Because they can't do worldwide surveys. The laws of various nations don't allow it.

The recent online surveys couldn't be completed by people not in the USA due to privacy laws.

Cheers!

 

[Umbran]

Hopefully that'll give you some sense of how hard we work to grow and sustain D&D. The proof is in the results: 4.6 million Americans claim to be regular tabletop D&D RPG players, up 15% from last year.

Eh? Not to call the man a liar, but to what survey or other input did they really get 4.6 million separate respondants?

Now, it may well be true that their market research indicates that 4.6 million Americans play. But that's a goodly bit different than having 4.6 million people acutally come to them and say it.

 

[Azul]

Because they can't do worldwide surveys. The laws of various nations don't allow it.

The recent online surveys couldn't be completed by people not in the USA due to privacy laws.

Cheers!

Most other developed nations have stricter privacy laws than the US, often far stricter. You'd be amazed how widely traded lists of personal information are in the US (by market research companies and marketing departments mostly). It makes marketing easier but it has its drawbacks too (helps companies invade your privacy, make identity fraud easier, encourages annoying direct marketing junk mail/calls). Not to mention that many people find the idea of companies collecting and selling their personal info both uncomfortable and invasive. As a result, lots of places have laws that put strict rules in place about how personal info is gathered and shared and back those laws up with stiff fines (since companies only pay attention when it hurts financially).

Here, companies can be fined serious amounts of cash (in the thousands per infraction, IIRC) for collecting personal information without express permission or misusing personal information (e.g. selling it to another company). Imagine the fines that could result from thousands of people's data. That's millions right there and just for Canada. The fines in the EU would be an order of magnitude larger I imagine. I don't know about places like Australia, NZ or others but I don't doubt other nations have similar laws too.

WotC is unlikely to get fined unless someone gets a bee in their bonnet and complains to their local government, but why take the risk? Since each jurisdiction has their own privacy laws, I doubt it is worth WotC's time (or even possible/practical) to create a survey that complies with the laws of dozens of nations (let alone with every legal system world-wide).

I imagine it would be possible to craft surveys that did comply with individual nation's privacy laws and have a local market research company familiar with how to do legally acceptable surveys in their market do the job. Might be worth it for about a dozen countries or so at most (wherever sales merit it).

 

[DanMcS]

Eh? Not to call the man a liar, but to what survey or other input did they really get 4.6 million separate respondants?

Now, it may well be true that their market research indicates that 4.6 million Americans play. But that's a goodly bit different than having 4.6 million people acutally come to them and say it.

Don't be dumb. Surveys and survey statistics are a well understood branch of math. You take a random sample of a large enough size, you get a reasonably accurate result and a margin of error measure. So they're not reporting the margin of error. Who cares.

 

[Zenodotus of Ephesus]

Wow! 4.6 million and only three of them can play an effective bard.

 

[Nathal]

D&D had its best year ever last year? Does he mean since its inception in the 1970s? If so, that's impressive, given its competition these days.

When they say there are 15% more players, I guess this contradicts the worry of attrition from the hobby. Is the added 15% of an age range different from when we were kids, picking up our first basic sets?

Hmmm.

 

[MerricB]

D&D had its best year ever last year? Does he mean since its inception in the 1970s? If so, that's impressive, given its competition these days.

If you'd like further illumination on the topic, Charles has kindly posted further on this in the past. (Heh, there's a problem with tenses if ever I've seen one).

"We’re doing great! 2004 was probably the best year ever for D&D (that's right: ever), as measured by a wide variety of standards. All of our key trends are up and continuing to accelerate upward. We expect 2005 to be the next best year ever for D&D."
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1896955&postcount=170

Also:
"More people play Dungeons & Dragons now than ever before," says Charles Ryan, D&D's brand manager. "Every year, we sell more copies of the Player's Handbook than we did during the 1980s." - http://www.nationalreview.com/miller/miller200410151029.asp

Cheers!

 

[Sammael]

I know of stores in the following countries that are participating:
Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, USA. (See the list here).

Even though it's not on the list, the Jednorog ("Unicorn") game store in Belgrade, Serbia, is also participating.