On Fantasy Grounds D&D Increases Dominance To 71%

If you thought Roll20's 52% was impressive, on Fantasy Grounds D&D is now 71% of games. Pathfinder (both editions) comes to 13% in second place. These figures are for Q4, 2020.

So here's what D&D (the bright green line) has done since the beginning of 2019. There's am obvious pandemic boost for VTTs, starting in February 2020.

D&D is so big that it makes it impossible to actually see everybody else on the graph. So here it is without D&D so you can see how everybody else is doing. The top purple line is Pathfinder 1E, and the blue one below it is Pathfinder 2E. Then comes Savage Worlds in orange, followed by Starfinder and Call of Cthulhu.

 

[Morrus]

I keep hearing this, but without Foundry data, we don't really know if people are going over to Foundry in the same numbers they're dropping from other platforms.

[Edit - I just emailed them asking if they plan to issue a report similar to the Roll20 and FG reports]

I don’t think they can. They’re not a hosted platform. You download the software and host the game yourself.

 

[Mistwell]

I don’t think they can. They’re not a hosted platform. You download the software and host the game yourself.

Ah. Darn. OK well that explains that!

To be fair, my desire for clear data is not their problem

 

[TheSword]

I am very doubtful that a package that costs 50$ and a reasonably high level of computer knowledge to open your computer as a server will have substantial numbers compared to free systems using browser.

Particularly when it was launched less than a year ago. They may be an insurgency but skeptical doesn’t even come close.

 

[LordEntrails]

I don’t think they can. They’re not a hosted platform. You download the software and host the game yourself.

They could publish number of downloads. And do they have any type of license check? That license check is one way SmiteWorks collects it's numbers.

 

[Mistwell]

I got a good (though perhaps unsatisfying) response from Foundry. I've asked their permission to pass it along, and will post the response if they do permit it.

 

[DaveMage]

What's with all the (presumably) D&D 2E players??? That seems weird. (Especially since 1E isn't there.)

(Unless they are all playing Planescape, which I would totally understand. )

 

[darjr]

I’m just looking for that spelljammer bump

 

[smiteworks]

What's with all the (presumably) D&D 2E players??? That seems weird. (Especially since 1E isn't there.)

(Unless they are all playing Planescape, which I would totally understand. )

We have a license with Wizards of the Coast to produce a subset of D&D Classics - 2nd Edition AD&D content. This also includes some 1E content that has been made compatible. As a result, it sees more use than a community ruleset that doesn't have official adventures and content.

 

[smiteworks]

Regarding Pathfinder, we saw a large growth in both Pathfinder 1st edition (PFRPG) and Pathfinder 2nd edition (PFRPG2). 1st edition is still slightly ahead in most months than PF 2. We have massive libraries of their content ported over, as well as fan-made OGL content available for free for it. The OGL stuff is nice, but the official content makes it very easy to play a ready-to-run adventure path. For most of those, the adventure only costs $7 or so for people that already own the PDF at Paizo.com. If you don't already own the PDF, you can buy at full print price to get the FG module plus the PDF.

In addition to Paizo products, there are other publishers created compatible content for those systems. Pathfinder 1E content has something like 340+ official splat books and adventure modules available for play using Fantasy Grounds. Pathfinder 2E has around 60 products out already.

Sorry for the sales pitch, but that's a big reason why we saw play on each of those systems triple over the last year.

That's not to say that D&D fifth edition doesn't have a lot of content, because it does too. In addition to all the official modules, DMsGuild content allows for fan-made Fantasy Grounds VTT mods through a special license between Wizards of the Coast, Fantasy Grounds, and OnebookShelf.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

I don’t think they can. They’re not a hosted platform. You download the software and host the game yourself.

So is fantasy grounds.