D&D General D&D Beyond's Users Online Over Last Year

[Morrus]

A couple issues with this data
1 - it's measuring "Forum Statistics" not site statistics

It's all one account across the whole site. If you check the users, you'll see most of them have zero posts--they're not posting on the forum. I've never used the forum and it's counting me as online when I look at a character sheet or another part of the site while I look at the members online list when logged out in an incognito window.

"Forum statistics" and "site statistics" are the same thing.

2 - it's measuring registered users, not necessarily total users

Sure. You can use other methods if you just want to get an idea of the 'general traffic' to a site.

 

[Morrus]

OK I did a little poking and if you login to DNDBeyond, weather or not you go into the forums, you are listed as active in the forums.

I logged into DNDBeyond elsewhere, didn't go into the forums and then went in without signing in from elsewhere. I see my account is listed as active.

Hah, you did the exact same experiment as me at exactly the same time!

 

[abazaba]

A couple issues with this data
1 - it's measuring "Forum Statistics" not site statistics
2 - it's measuring registered users, not necessarily total users
3 - it ignores app users entirely
4 - I'm looking at a higher number right now than any non-product spike than from August 2024

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. This seems to 'only' get the data of the forum usage, and not the total amount of paid subscribers (I have an account so I can get the UA and post on the forums, but am not an active subscriber), or the amount of users/time were using/accessing the paid DNDBeyond content. You might as well use the online user count of D&D related posts on this forum to determine how good/bad D&D (5e 2024) is doing.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. This seems to 'only' get the data of the forum usage, and not the total amount of paid subscribers (I have an account so I can get the UA and post on the forums, but am not an active subscriber), or the amount of users/time were using/accessing the paid DNDBeyond content. You might as well use the online user count of D&D related posts on this forum to determine how good/bad D&D (5e 2024) is doing.

See the three posts right before yours. You are counted as online on the forums wherever you are on the site. We've checked!

 

[Clint_L]

Hmmm...that makes it a bit more useful, but I don't think it tells us much in isolation. I would like to see paid subscriptions year over year, as well as the distribution between app users and online users (for example, when we play I am the only person not using the app).

My vibe amongst the high school students I work with is that D&D/RPGs have less of the hotness than they did five years ago, but that's so anecdotal that I can't do much with it in terms of broader trends.

 

[Clint_L]

I also wonder if becoming much less visibly associated with Critical Role has impacted DDB usage. I specifically started using it because of CR.

 

[abazaba]

See the three posts right before yours. You are counted as online on the forums wherever you are on the site. We've checked!

Ok. Let's see if we mean the same thing here.

So I get counted no matter if :

• I am only using the forum, but do not have a paid account.
• I am only getting the UA, but do not have a paid account.
• I am only getting the 'claimed but free' stuff (like LMoP), but do not have a paid account.
• I have a paid account and am using paid content ('only' D&D 2014).
• I have a paid account and am using paid content (D&D 2024).

Now what does that mean (or imply) of the popularity of the 2024 core rulebooks ?

 

[Morrus]

Ok. Let's see if we mean the same thing here.

So I get counted no matter if :

• I am only using the forum, but do not have a paid account.
• I am only getting the UA, but do not have a paid account.
• I am only getting the 'claimed but free' stuff (like LMoP), but do not have a paid account.
• I have a paid account and am using paid content ('only' D&D 2014).
• I have a paid account and am using paid content (D&D 2024).

Yes. I have never had a paid account, was not using the forums, and got counted when I visited various areas of the site. Basically if you can see your username or avatar at the top right of the screen, you are logged into the site. I just tried it with the marketplace, a news article, a character sheet, the compendium, etc. -- they all showed me logged in.

Now what does that mean (or imply) of the popularity of the 2024 core rulebooks ?

I have no idea. I'll leave any interpretation or lack thereof to you.

 

[mamba]

But is that a long-term trend or a summer trend?

too early to tell for the former, it is not the latter however, the drop goes from April to June, that is not a summer drop

 

[abazaba]

I have no idea. I'll leave any interpretation or lack thereof to you.

My interpretation is that the data ('as-is') is insufficient to say anything about the popularity of the 2024 core books, as the original post implied.