Hussar
Legend
/snip
So we have a few people in their 50s and 60s still playing D&D, and a ton of people in their 20s-40s, with people age 10-20 starting to play. But the question is, how many will actually play a tabletop RPG? That's what remains to be seen.
But again, the point is that RPGs are one of the only hobbies that you have significant numbers of people from age 10ish to age 60ish actively playing. The upper end of this number will continue to go up as the first and second generation of gamers grows older and keep on playing.
But I ramble.
Do you have anything other than gut feeling to back up the idea that there are more 20-40 year olds playing D&D than under 20's?
I remember the last Dragon (or was it Dungeon) polling that I saw for their readership, back in about 2007, and the average age of a Dragon (or Dungeon, I'm working from memory here, so bear with me) was around 21 or 22. IOW, really bloody young. Now, yeah, I know, confirmation bias and all that, it's hardly conclusive. But, I really think that the idea that there is this huge bulge in the middle of the age demographics of D&D is one that needs a lot more careful examination.
It's been almost taken as a truism that the fandom is graying, but, other than anecdotal evidence, I've never seen anything that actually shows that this is true.