D&D Surges Into Lead In Orr Group Figures

The last two times the Orr Group (makers of the popular Roll20 online gaming tools which cite a user base of close to a million users) produced statistics on which games were being played, Pathfinder held the top spot. Those were in October 2014 and January 2015. However, April 2015 brings us a different picture: it seems like D&D 5th Edition has surged into first place in terms of games played (but not in terms of number of players, a title curiously held by D&D 3.5).

Interestingly, the top 4 spots are all one flavour of D&D or another (including Pathfinder, of course). This matches ICv2's latest hobby game retailer surveys which have D&D regaining the top spot after several years. Paizo's Erik Mona does note, however, that the "post-5th Edition paradigm" has not significantly harmed Pathfinder's sales.

 

[Alphastream]

What is the source of the image? I can't find anything on the roll20 blog. Can a link be posted to the source? Thanks!

 

[Von Ether]

I'm still holding onto my theory that D&D's 5e and Pathfinder have more of a symbiotic relationship than most people realize. Sure on the Internet everyone complains about every aspect D&D. But on the ground, I think people switch between the games as the mood strikes them, Pathfinder for tactical and 5e for less tactical and theater of the mind.

Sure you could switch that up, but each game has it's strengths.

And I think the die hards in both camps are happy enough to leave the other side alone. Sort of a "Not enough my cup of tea, so why bother making a fuss about it."

 

[redrick]

I'm still holding onto my theory that D&D's 5e and Pathfinder have more of a symbiotic relationship than most people realize. Sure on the Internet everyone complains about every aspect D&D. But on the ground, I think people switch between the games as the mood strikes them, Pathfinder for tactical and 5e for less tactical and theater of the mind.

Sure you could switch that up, but each game has it's strengths.

And I think the die hards in both camps are happy enough to leave the other side alone. Sort of a "Not enough my cup of tea, so why bother making a fuss about it."

In support of this, I went and played D&D at a local gaming store last night. Several of the folks playing D&D on Wednesday are also playing Pathfinder there tonight. Many players are more concerned about the game in the abstract than the mechanics of the given system.

 

[Kramodlog]

First is games, second is players.

If we take the D&D numbers, it makes sense that D&D's 8,844 games represent 25,75% of the total 36,514 games they sampled (actually that percentage should be a bit lower), but how is 7,719 players 31,99% of 74,094 players sample?

I wonder what sort of math they did.

 

[bmfrosty]

If we take the D&D numbers, it makes sense that D&D's 8,844 games represent 25,75% of the total 36,514 games they sampled (actually that percentage should be a bit lower), but how is 7,719 players 31,99% of 74,094 players sample?

I wonder what sort of math they did.

Some people play both D&D and Pathfinder.

 

[Xodis]

Its all sorts of screwed up, New and old World of Darkness are separate, yet Vampire: The Masquerade is its own separate section as well but we still have a White Wolf entry that says any edition. Dark Heresy (a game taking place in the Warhammer 40K universe) is actually higher than the Warhammer 40K entry?!?! Just seems odd.

 

[bmfrosty]

I'm still holding onto my theory that D&D's 5e and Pathfinder have more of a symbiotic relationship than most people realize. Sure on the Internet everyone complains about every aspect D&D. But on the ground, I think people switch between the games as the mood strikes them, Pathfinder for tactical and 5e for less tactical and theater of the mind.

Sure you could switch that up, but each game has it's strengths.

And I think the die hards in both camps are happy enough to leave the other side alone. Sort of a "Not enough my cup of tea, so why bother making a fuss about it."

It makes me wonder if the D&D team at WotC could handle two games. D&D 5E, and D&D Tactics.

Then I realize that I'm silly. They're not trying to take a bigger piece of the shrinking TTRPG pie, they're trying to make it bigger.

 

[Xodis]

You're probably right, my vote would be less Tactical vs. Theater of Mind and more about the level of character customization between the two. Some people prefer to be EXTREMELY specific when creating a character down to minuet choices, others enjoy the general specifics with customization being more about re-skinning for flavor.

 

[Kramodlog]

Some people play both D&D and Pathfinder.

Yes, but 7,719 is still not 31.99% of 74,094.

 

[bmfrosty]

Yes, but 7,719 is still not 31.99% of 74,094.

It doesn't have to be.

Lets say they have a user base of two people.

They have play each a game of pathfinder and a game of 5e.

So 5e gets 100% of the players *and* pathfinder also gets 100% of the players.

See how that works?