D&D 5E Nobody Is Playing High Level Characters

According to stats from D&D Beyond, above 5th level characters start to drop off sharply, and above 10th level, the figures are very low. The exception is level 20, which looks like it's probably people creating experimental 20th-level builds.

Some of them say 0%; this isn't strictly accurate, but levels 16-19 are used by an insignificant number of players. Interestingly, there are more 3rd-5th level characters than there are 1st-2nd level.

D&D Beyond has said before that under 10% of games make it past 10th level, but these figures show the break point as being bit lower than that. DDB used over 30 million characters to compile these stats.

 

[billd91]

Yes, this excludes anyone who was born before 1964. Today, those gamers are over 56 years old.

Interestingly enough, this means it pretty much cuts out the Baby Boomers as a market segment - while they were still the biggest generational cohort in the American economy and most of the Millennials. The survey was squarely targeted at Generation X whether the surveyors explicitly recognized it at the time or not.

And to think, us Gen Xers never feel like we get any attention. sniff sob

 

[Tiggerunner]

An awful lot of the adventures on dmguild were some gm's adventure/campaign notes that got cleaned up & put into a nicer state before getting "published". The fact that most of them are on the lower end of the scale likely has more to do with the scaling problems in 5e than your conspiracy theory there

If you think my points are meritless, then you must believe that WoTC doesn't release all of their research data to the public domain because "it's boring and inaccessible."

 

[Anoth]

Actually, @Tiggerunner , you should just play whatever suits you and you think is fun. These boards (and others) will just make games give you a sour stomach if you take other posters (including me) seriously.

I was just curious if you knew some third-party provider who was getting big enough to be a threat to WotC. I was gonna check them out.

I am so enjoying call of cthulhu 7E right now. I don’t think it will ever surpass d&d. But I think it will be out there for the rest of my life. (I am sure there will be a 8E someday). The game is also heavily backwards compatible. And they have great published adventures and scenarios. And the magical system is easily adaptable to more sword and sorcery with a few add-on spells. And their are simpler armor rules than runequest that can be tacked on from a supplement.

 

[Tiggerunner]

I am so enjoying call of cthulhu 7E right now. I don’t think it will ever surpass d&d. But I think it will be out there for the rest of my life. (I am sure there will be a 8E someday). The game is also heavily backwards compatible. And they have great published adventures and scenarios. And the magical system is easily adaptable to more sword and sorcery with a few add-on spells. And their are simpler armor rules than runequest that can be tacked on from a supplement.

My comment about Trail of Cthulu, just to be clear, was an attempt at a self-deprecating joke because of the suggestion that I was a conspiracy theorist. I like lots of games, and none of this good discussion makes me like D&D any less.

 

[Tony Vargas]

. The survey was squarely targeted at Generation X whether the surveyors explicitly recognized it at the time or not.

And to think, us Gen Xers never feel like we get any attention. sniff sob

I'd always figured we were the core audience for D&D, and that was part of its problem with it breaking out.
Now that the milinials are into it, it has a shot, again.

But imagine if it had come out 10 years earlier, and had the full force of the boomers behind, like Star Trek....

 

[Doc_Klueless]

If you think my points are meritless, then you must believe that WoTC doesn't release all of their research data to the public domain because "it's boring and inaccessible."

Um, Badeye said, "(Although our internal data scientists do plenty of their own research that would be far less exciting/accessible for the community.)" So, while he did say it was boring, he didn't say it was inaccessible. Just less so. There's a difference.

And he isn't a part of WotC. Don't confuse DNDBeyond with WotC. They ain't the same thing. That'd be like blaming WotC for something the Owner of a Hobby Shop or a Third-Party Publisher said.

 

[Tiggerunner]

Um, Badeye said, "(Although our internal data scientists do plenty of their own research that would be far less exciting/accessible for the community.)" So, while he did say it was boring, he didn't say it was inaccessible. Just less so. There's a difference.

And he isn't a part of WotC. Don't confuse DNDBeyond with WotC. They ain't the same thing. That'd be like blaming WotC for something the Owner of a Hobby Shop or a Third-Party Publisher said.

The semantics aren't really the point; I think we aren't disagreeing about much of substance here, as I think you agree that market research is valuable insofar as it provides a strategic Information advantage, especially in a narrow market. In which case, the data that is provided here isn't really meant to inform, but rather to influence.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

My point, while it may seem like nitpicking, was that you're blaming WotC for something that they didn't do but that someone else did. WotC did not gather, process nor disseminate the data in this thread (nor hide, mutilate or spindle it).

You're harshing on the wrong people. As such, it's difficult to take your complaints seriously as you're not even getting that very simple, basic data-point correct.

 

[Tiggerunner]

My point, while it may seem like nitpicking, was that you're blaming WotC for something that they didn't do but that someone else did. WotC did not gather, process nor disseminate the data in this thread (nor hide, mutilate or spindle it).

You're harshing on the wrong people. As such, it's difficult to take your complaints seriously as you're not even getting that very simple, basic data-point correct.

It's a fair criticism that my suspicion may be misdirected, but I still think we are quibbling since we are talking about an offical product developer with access to NDA data.

 

[Anoth]

My comment about Trail of Cthulu, just to be clear, was an attempt at a self-deprecating joke because of the suggestion that I was a conspiracy theorist. I like lots of games, and none of this good discussion makes me like D&D any less.

I didn’t mean anything negative. I didn’t catch the sarcasm. I was just suggesting another fun game in addition to d&d 5E that I like alot also. I’m slow on the uptake somedays.