Fantasy Grounds Usage Stats Through Q1 2019: D&D Up, Pathfinder Down

The latest usage stats for Fantasy Grounds are in... and D&D is up again in the latest updated stats from Quarter 1 of 2018 through to Quarter 1 of 2019, rising to a whopping 69% of the market since the stats from Q1 2018! Pathfinder drops from 12% last year to 9% (possibly due to the edition change coming soon), and Savage Worlds drops nearly 2%.

[FONT=&quot]Ruleset[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]Total Games[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]Sum of total[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]5E[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]619,071[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]68.97%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]PFRPG[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]84,214[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]9.38%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]SavageWorlds[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]38,958[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]4.34%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]SFRPG[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]21,654[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]2.41%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]3.5E[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]18,550[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]2.07%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]MoreCore[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]15,435[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]1.72%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]CoreRPG[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]13,774[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]1.53%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Call Of Cthulhu[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]13,465[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]1.50%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]4E[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]9,440[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]1.05%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Star Wars[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]8,163[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.91%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]PFRPG2[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]7,979[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.89%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]GURPS[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]6,883[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.77%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]AD&D[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]6,344[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.71%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Castles and Crusades[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]4,817[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.54%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]WFRP[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]4,397[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.49%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]DSA[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]3,679[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.41%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]RolemasterClassic[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]3,476[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.39%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Cypher System[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]3,287[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.37%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Fate Core[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]2,869[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.32%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]VtM[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]2,412[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.27%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]WH40K[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]2,285[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.25%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Numenera[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]2,000[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.22%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]DCCRPG[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]1,644[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.18%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Mongoose Traveller 1E[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]1,577[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.18%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Shadowrun[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]1,197[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]0.13%[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Grand Total[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]897,570[/FONT]	[FONT=&quot]100.00%[/FONT]

"CorePG" is the "general" module Fantasy Grounds uses when there isn't a more specific one.

The changes from Q1 2018 (rounded to the nearest whole) are as follows. Note that share can go down while a game's total number of games goes up as the pool expands, so a reduction in market share doesn't equate to a reduction in sales, games played, profit, or anything else.

​

D&D 5E	+4%
Pathfinder	-2.6%
Savage Worlds	-1.7%
D&D 3.5	+1%
Star Wars	-0.1%
Starfinder	+1.4%
Call of Cthulhu	-0.5%

​

 

[Hussar]

Fair enough I suppose. OTOH, I think that Fantasy Grounds may be a poor judge for this sort of thing. Most people who are going to play 5e on Fantasy Grounds will likely buy at least the Core 3 - which is generally around another 100-150 dollars plus a couple of supplements. That's over and above any expenditures of print books on top. It's not exactly cheap to run a 5e D&D game on Fantasy Grounds. Meaning that I doubt folks will be quite so blase about abandoning 5e for other games. I could be wrong though. But, it seems to me if you bought a DM's license (150 bucks), you're likely out about 300-500 dollars sunk into running a 5e game.

And, it depends on whatever system you want to change to as well. If there isn't a license, then you are stuck entering everything into the game table manually and that's a ton of work and it's not exactly the easiest thing to do either.

I guess my point is, Fantasy Grounds will likely remain 5e centric for the foreseeable future, but, that might not be representative of the larger hobby.

 

[Mageman]

Fair enough I suppose. OTOH, I think that Fantasy Grounds may be a poor judge for this sort of thing. Most people who are going to play 5e on Fantasy Grounds will likely buy at least the Core 3 - which is generally around another 100-150 dollars plus a couple of supplements. That's over and above any expenditures of print books on top. It's not exactly cheap to run a 5e D&D game on Fantasy Grounds. Meaning that I doubt folks will be quite so blase about abandoning 5e for other games. I could be wrong though. But, it seems to me if you bought a DM's license (150 bucks), you're likely out about 300-500 dollars sunk into running a 5e game.

And, it depends on whatever system you want to change to as well. If there isn't a license, then you are stuck entering everything into the game table manually and that's a ton of work and it's not exactly the easiest thing to do either.

I guess my point is, Fantasy Grounds will likely remain 5e centric for the foreseeable future, but, that might not be representative of the larger hobby.

I think it is a great representation. How many other systems have books on the Amazon top sellers list?

 

[LordEntrails]

On trickle down... This is a measure of actual games sessions played (a very different measurement than when Roll20 used to publish its stats). So, if you switch from playing a weekly 5E game to only playing monthly because you are now also playing other systems, then the FG stats will reflect that. (i.e. you will go from 4+ 5E games played to ~1 game played per month.)

What I'm interested in seeing is how AD&D and DCC do over the next few quarters now that 2E and DCC are officially licensed and you can purchase the core books and some adventures in those formats. I'm sure a lot of people will be looking at those numbers

 

[Parmandur]

Fair enough I suppose. OTOH, I think that Fantasy Grounds may be a poor judge for this sort of thing. Most people who are going to play 5e on Fantasy Grounds will likely buy at least the Core 3 - which is generally around another 100-150 dollars plus a couple of supplements. That's over and above any expenditures of print books on top. It's not exactly cheap to run a 5e D&D game on Fantasy Grounds. Meaning that I doubt folks will be quite so blase about abandoning 5e for other games. I could be wrong though. But, it seems to me if you bought a DM's license (150 bucks), you're likely out about 300-500 dollars sunk into running a 5e game.

And, it depends on whatever system you want to change to as well. If there isn't a license, then you are stuck entering everything into the game table manually and that's a ton of work and it's not exactly the easiest thing to do either.

I guess my point is, Fantasy Grounds will likely remain 5e centric for the foreseeable future, but, that might not be representative of the larger hobby.

The sunk-cost issue, in terms of money and rules knowledge, applies in meat-space with physical books, though.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

Fair enough I suppose. OTOH, I think that Fantasy Grounds may be a poor judge for this sort of thing. Most people who are going to play 5e on Fantasy Grounds will likely buy at least the Core 3 - which is generally around another 100-150 dollars plus a couple of supplements. That's over and above any expenditures of print books on top. It's not exactly cheap to run a 5e D&D game on Fantasy Grounds. Meaning that I doubt folks will be quite so blase about abandoning 5e for other games. I could be wrong though. But, it seems to me if you bought a DM's license (150 bucks), you're likely out about 300-500 dollars sunk into running a 5e game.

And, it depends on whatever system you want to change to as well. If there isn't a license, then you are stuck entering everything into the game table manually and that's a ton of work and it's not exactly the easiest thing to do either.

I guess my point is, Fantasy Grounds will likely remain 5e centric for the foreseeable future, but, that might not be representative of the larger hobby.

The core 3 books 5e books, at regular price, are $29.99 each or $89.97. If you wait about a month and buy each as they go on sale, you can save another 10%+ on that price. That is as good or better than Amazon.com in the USA for the printed books. If you buy FG for just 5e and have a 5 player group including DM and just buy one Ultimate license then you spend an additional $150 for it and all 5 can play.

DCC and AD&D 2e were just released as official rulesets and I expect that will mean more will use them.

One final point, the amount of 3PP 5e (and others) content is quite deep in the FG store, so if you do not want to spend the time entering the materials yourself, you can be up and running very quickly. for 5e, major 3PP like Kobold Press, Frog God Games, Legendary and AAW all have a lot of content. Fantasy Grounds is also the only VTT that has a license and can sell conversions on the DMs Guild as well.

The new version being Kickstarted should catch them up on most "bells and whistles" the other VTT have in graphics and ease of connection, and I think they have a real advantage in automation and breath and depth of DLC.

 

[Hussar]

The sunk-cost issue, in terms of money and rules knowledge, applies in meat-space with physical books, though.

I guess my point is, generally speaking, I think people buy the meat space books as well. IOW, I think a lot of folks double dip, which makes the sunk cost a lot more.

But, yeah, with the 2e and DCC rules coming online, one would think that we'll see some movement in those directions as well. It's the automation, more than the price that I was thinking was keeping folks playing 5e. I'm probably a lot less likely to play, I dunno, Mouseguard (picking a random example) on Fantasy Grounds simply because the amount of work getting it up and running even before I can actually start playing is more than I'm willing to sink in.

Totally could just be me of course.

On other VTT's, the community tends to come up with frameworks for a lot of different properties and on Maptool, those frameworks were free. It made me a lot more willing to try out other games where I could buy the meatspace game, log onto Maptools and get right to it.

Just to be clear though, this is 100% gut feeling speculation on my part. I am certainly not privy to any insider information and I can be totally wrong. Probably just projecting my own preferences.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

I guess my point is, generally speaking, I think people buy the meat space books as well. IOW, I think a lot of folks double dip, which makes the sunk cost a lot more.

But, yeah, with the 2e and DCC rules coming online, one would think that we'll see some movement in those directions as well. It's the automation, more than the price that I was thinking was keeping folks playing 5e. I'm probably a lot less likely to play, I dunno, Mouseguard (picking a random example) on Fantasy Grounds simply because the amount of work getting it up and running even before I can actually start playing is more than I'm willing to sink in.

Totally could just be me of course.

On other VTT's, the community tends to come up with frameworks for a lot of different properties and on Maptool, those frameworks were free. It made me a lot more willing to try out other games where I could buy the meatspace game, log onto Maptools and get right to it.

Just to be clear though, this is 100% gut feeling speculation on my part. I am certainly not privy to any insider information and I can be totally wrong. Probably just projecting my own preferences.

Morecore and Core RPG are the people doing what you said.

 

[Mageman]

If you're buying official or 3rd party products then fantasy grounds is the cheapest of the VTTs. You also have the DMsguild which anyone can make and sell stuff for fantasy grounds. That encourages lots of content.

 

[LordEntrails]

I guess my point is, generally speaking, I think people buy the meat space books as well. IOW, I think a lot of folks double dip, which makes the sunk cost a lot more.

I think that really only applies mostly to us old folk who have an emotional attachment to printed books. I feel the younger generation could care less about having the physical book over a digital version. Whichever is more convenient for their situation is the what they chose.

Myself, I switch to digital over a decade ago. It actually started with work, because I traveled a whole lot, carrying around a notebook and printed manuals or conference notes or everything else was heavy. So I made a conscious decision to scan everything, to take my notes digitally, etc. Once I was doing that for work, it was a simple switch to digital for my gaming too.

 

[Morrus]

I think that really only applies mostly to us old folk who have an emotional attachment to printed books.

The Amazon sales rankings suggest otherwise.

 

[damned]

The Amazon sales rankings suggest otherwise.

Or they suggest what these stats also suggest and that is the market is growing.

5E is without any doubt the best selling D&D variant and D&D has almost always been the best selling RPG (bar that period during 4E that we dont talk about in polite company).

I have shelves and shelves of dead tree RPG books. But I have even more digital RPG content. And I buy digital RPG content at more than 10:1 ratio to physical books these days. I havent stopped buying physical RPG books but Im far more selective about the physical ones that I do buy.

 

[aramis erak]

I am a little shocked at how well Rolemaster Classic does compared to others.

Rolemaster front-loads most of the complexity, and automating the tables makes it play MUCH MUCH faster. In a way, that makes VTT a superior platform to the home table for it. If fully set up, it could even make character gen superior. Plus, when you ignore all the optional rules, tis a fairly simple ruleset.

Plus, it's a system with lots of meaningful choices in Character Generation, despite being a random roll.

 

[jmucchiello]

Am I missing it, or is there not a single super-hero themed RPG showing up? That seems amazing to me, considering the popularity of super-hero themed films, TV shows, et cetera.

FG doesn't have a super-hero game module worth talking about. Anyone playing superhero games on FG are probably lumped into the "corerpg" and "morecore" catagories.

 

[Mageman]

FG doesn't have a super-hero game module worth talking about. Anyone playing superhero games on FG are probably lumped into the "corerpg" and "morecore" catagories.

They have the mutants and masterminds and Savage worlds

 

[jmucchiello]

The M&M module is FG 2.99 based and lacks most of cool things you can do in corerpg and morecore. Savage worlds is more than just supers.

 

[mopa9000]

The M&M module Brazzers Youporn Xhamster is FG 2.99 based and lacks most of cool things you can do in corerpg and morecore. Savage worlds is more than just supers.

Licensing also plays a big role in this. Officially licensed rulesets almost always outperform community rulesets by a large margin. Most RPGs for super hero or other film based items are already licensed out to a tabletop RPG publisher. Getting a license with the publisher for these would mean that the proceeds would now need to split to an additional party and the contracts become more and more complicated. As an example, we have official licenses with Green Ronin but only for their first party game systems and not for stuff that they had to license from someone else - A Song of Ice and Fire , DC Comics based content, etc. The same thing limits the ability to get any sort of official Star Wars RPG support.

 

[jmucchiello]

Licensing also plays a big role in this. Officially licensed rulesets almost always outperform community rulesets by a large margin. Most RPGs for super hero or other film based items are already licensed out to a tabletop RPG publisher. Getting a license with the publisher for these would mean that the proceeds would now need to split to an additional party and the contracts become more and more complicated. As an example, we have official licenses with Green Ronin but only for their first party game systems and not for stuff that they had to license from someone else - A Song of Ice and Fire , DC Comics based content, etc. The same thing limits the ability to get any sort of official Star Wars RPG support.

M&M is wholly owned by Green Ronin. They don't need anyone's permission to grant you permission to make an M&M module that is more functional. It is a catch-22. People don't play M&M on FG because the module support is lacking. And module support for M&M is lacking because people don't play M&M on FG. Someone was supposedly working on a M&M module based off CoreRpg but they seem to have lost interest.