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.

 

[Morrus]

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!

Emailed out by the Roll20 guys as a press release. So that article *is* the source.

 

[Kramodlog]

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?

Yup, but that still doesn't explain these numbers: 7,719 players is still not 31.99% of 74,094 players. 7,719 players is 31.99% of what exactly? 23,000 players? Where does that number come from?

 

[bmfrosty]

Yup, but that still doesn't explain these numbers: 7,719 players is still not 31.99% of 74,094 players. 7,719 players is 31.99% of what exactly? 23,000 players? Where does that number come from?

You're right. That's weird. Maybe 50,000 of their sample don't play any games? Maybe someone hit a 7 instead of a 2 when building the list?

 

[NewJeffCT]

interesting that there are more 3.5e players than either Pathfinder or 5e.

 

[Umbran]

Yeah, those stats are... weird. I am wondering if we have a mismatch between "instances of play" and "unique users" or something, that make the percentages look strange.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

I had a several year subscription to Dragon, at various points in time, and I barely used 10% of the material I bought. And probably significantly less. But, I sure miss having a print Dragon mag appear in my mailbox, even if I wasn't using it.

I was the same way, though I only remember using the material from two articles in my campaigns. I just enjoyed reading the rest of it.

Last week I ran across a stash of old Dragon magazines at a used bookstore that were one dollar each. I bought all thirty of them. I doubt I'll find anything in them I'll use, but I'll have fun reading them.

 

[GX.Sigma]

There are more 5e games than there are 5e players? What does that even mean?

What counts as a "player" anyway? Just someone who clicked that checkbox when they made their account? Does this mean that there are a lot of people playing 5e games who aren't identified as "5e players?" Maybe that's what these alleged "3.5 players" (who aren't playing 3.5) are playing.

 

[redrick]

There are more 5e games than there are 5e players? What does that even mean?

What counts as a "player" anyway? Just someone who clicked that checkbox when they made their account? Does this mean that there are a lot of people playing 5e games who aren't identified as "5e players?" Maybe that's what these alleged "3.5 players" (who aren't playing 3.5) are playing.

Yeah, in short, the "player" data from this report is misleading. It must be useful to somebody?

When you create a profile on Roll20, you are able to list all the games you play. As I understand, the "players" data from this report simply uses that field from user profiles. Of course, the profile has little to no bearing on what people actually play, and many users don't bother to update it. Other users might not bother to fill it in at all. Some people fill in every version of D&D in existence at the time of their profile creation, just in case. (Even though they might not have played AD&D 2e since the late '90s.)

 

[dd.stevenson]

The only way I can make sense of these numbers is to assume that this is a report on the LFG data, rather than an actual survey of extant games/players.

That would explain why there are more 5E games than players, because people recruit for their games outside of roll20's LFG system.

That would also explain why there are so many 3E players--almost everyone knows the game, and feels comfortable clicking that box on their LFG profile.