D&D 5E D&D Statistics by State (March 2023)

[CleverNickName]

Apologies if this was already posted elsewhere. I did a cursory search on ENWorld and Google, and it came up empty.

Back in March, Sarah from TabletopDen.com posted an article that summarized some statistics on the Dungeons & Dragons hobby. The list of 11 statistics were pulled from a number of sources--Wizards of the Coast, New York Times, Forbes, INC.com, and so forth.) I'm no going to retype the whole article but I'll summarize (cherry-pick?) it below. Read the full article here if you want the numbers and sources and suchlike.

Summary:
D&D global sales continue to increase
D&D leads the tabletop RPG category
D&D is the #1 platform on Roll20.

Demographics:
The gender gap is narrowing
Most players are age 20 to 24
There are over 50 million players worldwide
(compare to 1981, when it had 3 million players worldwide)

Usage Stats:
There are more D&D games on Roll20 than all other games combined.
Millions of people watch D&D on Twitch
Critical Role has the most subscribers, followed by Adventure Zone, then Dimension20
Most players have human characters.
The Outlander background is the most popular choice worldwide.
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything was the most pre-ordered D&D book ever.
March 2020 was "peak interest" for D&D.
Utah is the state that plays the most D&D, followed by Idaho, then Oregon.

 

[Scribe]

Utah is the state that plays the most D&D, followed by Idaho, then Oregon.

Now that is interesting.

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything was the most pre-ordered D&D book ever.

Fake news.

 

[J.Quondam]

Utah is the state that plays the most D&D, followed by Idaho, then Oregon.

Interesting. I wonder if that's absolute numbers or fraction of population? I couldn't tell from the linked article.


(Also, I was half hoping this would be a "Survivor - D&D Statistics" thread.)

 

[Ruin Explorer]

There are over 50 million players worldwide

Worth noting that if this is the Forbes article I'm thinking of (unfortunately she doesn't link it), it's 50 million people who have played D&D, which constrasts with WotC's own, later estimate of 30 million people who do play D&D.

Still huge numbers of course.

 

[CleverNickName]

Interesting. I wonder if that's absolute numbers or fraction of population? I couldn't tell from the linked article.


(Also, I was half hoping this would be a "Survivor - D&D Statistics" thread.)

This was the only thing I could find:

The Top 10 States That Play The Most Dungeons And Dragons (And The Least) - Zippia

D&D By State Research Summary Utah plays the most D&D in the US, followed by Idaho, Oregon, Maine, and Vermont. New York plays the least D&D in the US, followed by New Jersey, Mississippi, Georgia, California. Monks are the most popular class, being favored by 19 states. Ranger and Druid tie for...

www.zippia.com

Frustratingly, it also doesn't list its sources. It does "show its work," so to speak.

It also says that the three states with the least D&D are:
48. Hawaii
49. Delaware
50. South Carolina

Worth noting that if this is the Forbes article I'm thinking of (unfortunately she doesn't link it), it's 50 million people who have played D&D, which constrasts with WotC's own, later estimate of 30 million people who do play D&D.

Still huge numbers of course.

The article I linked in this post puts the number of people actually playing at 13.7 million.

It also has this interesting graphic:

 

[Parmandur]

March 2020 was "peak interest" for D&D.

This bot is outdated by now: the movie didn't set the box office on fire, but interest in D&D (as measured by online searches) actually hit much higher new all time peaks in April and May.

 

[Alzrius]

The gender gap is narrowing

My understanding is that it's remained fairly constant for the last several years. As of 2018, 39% of D&D players were women, and that's essentially the same as today.

 

[billd91]

Interesting. I wonder if that's absolute numbers or fraction of population? I couldn't tell from the linked article.

Yeah, I have to wonder about that one myself. California has a little over 19x the population of Idaho. I cannot imagine that there are fewer aggregate hours of D&D played in CA than in ID, or even fewer players in absolute terms.

 

[CleverNickName]

My understanding is that it's remained fairly constant for the last several years. As of 2018, 39% of D&D players were women, and that's essentially the same as today.

Oh absolutely. But still: even just one percent of 55 million is massive. If it's linear, that means the gender gap in D&D is closing by about a hundred thousand new players every year.

 

[ichabod]

It should be noted that it's not the top ten states that play D&D the most, it's the top ten states that google D&D the most.