How big's the RPG market?

How big is the RPG market? Pretty damn tiny, is the answer. As of 2016/2017 it's about $35m in size, according to ICv2. That's of a Hobby Games market currently worth just over a billion dollars. The RPG segment is a mere 2.9% of the overall Hobby Games market, which includes boardgames, miniatures, hobby card games, and collectible games. Of course, the competition for RPGs isn't just boardgames or card games, it's entertainment; and on that scale, the RPG market is a tiny niche of the Hobby Games market, which is a tiny niche of the global entertainment market. Note that these figures are US and Canada only, and include Kickstarter sales.

UPDATE: the below $1.19B figure has since been revised upwards by ICv2 to $1.4B in 2017, with an RPG segment of $45M.

The hobby games market as a whole is the size of one major movie blockbuster. The global film industry market was 38.3 billion in 2015. Putting that into perspective:

The video game industry is even bigger, at $91B in 2016.

However, the entire hobby games market is growing year on year. Just look at the latest stats: the market has grown from $700M in 2013 to $1.19B in 2016/2017. Of that, RPGs have more than doubled in size, from $15M to $35M. Boardgames have over tripled in size. There is definitely a tabletop boom going on right now, powered by a number of factors ranging from Kickstarter, to the introduction of US West Coast media (shows like Tabletop and outlets like Geek & Sundry have helped to mainstream tabletop gaming), and more.

Data from ICv2 and other sources.

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[LordEntrails]

[MENTION=22387]The_Gunslinger658[/MENTION], FYI, we are not all men, we are not all grown, and we are not all Americans. We should always try to keep the diversity of ENWorld in mind and try to stay inclusive.

 

[Hussar]

Neverminding opening a post with a racial slur. Yeesh.

 

[darjr]

I had a bit of an interesting conversation. Right now the PHB is at 88 of all books. Lowest I've seen it. But someone said that to be there it had to sell something like 100 books a day to stay in the top 100 - 500 day after day. Does that sound reasonable? It was at 64 the other day right next to The Great Gatsby that USA Today said, in 2013, sold 500,000+ copies.

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

If you had bothered to do your research, "Whoa Mohammad" is the battle cry of the British 2nd Parachute Battalion at the Battle of Arnhem Bridge. So please do not accuse me of a racial slur.

Neverminding opening a post with a racial slur. Yeesh.

 

[Hussar]

If you had bothered to do your research, "Whoa Mohammad" is the battle cry of the British 2nd Parachute Battalion at the Battle of Arnhem Bridge. So please do not accuse me of a racial slur.

Yes, just because the British said it makes it less of a racial slur?

 

[Tony Vargas]

Yes, just because the British said it makes it less of a racial slur?

Less of a slur than if an American said it, more than if a Canadian did, I think, is how it would go. But I don't have my ethical-relativist slide-rule handy, so I'm just ballpark'n it.

 

[Yaztromo]

Thank you very much for this very interesting piece of information!

 

[Morrus]

Yes, just because the British said it makes it less of a racial slur?

I think it's probably OK if he was a member of the British 2nd Parachute Battalion at the Battle of Arnhem Bridge.

I suspect he was not, though.

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

I think it's probably OK if he was a member of the British 2nd Parachute Battalion at the Battle of Arnhem Bridge.

I suspect he was not, though.

Here is the info on the brit para units warcry:

https://www.quora.com/World-War-II-...-the-British-airborne-division-The-Red-Devils

 

[LordEntrails]

Here is the info on the brit para units warcry:

https://www.quora.com/World-War-II-...-the-British-airborne-division-The-Red-Devils

I think you miss the point. It's not that we don't believe you that it was a battle cry.

You miss the point, just because someone or some organization used/uses a word or phrase and even if they did not mean it as a slur, that has absolutely nothing to do with determining if it was/is a racial slur or not.

Perhaps it is our time of concern with political correctness etc. But their are dozen (and probably thousands) of terms/phrases that were once used that are no longer socially acceptable. The easiest of these is the "N" word for blacks which is now almost universally avoided. But others include things like "Squaw", "Redskin"...etc.