Orr Group Q4 2017 Shows Large D&D Bump

The Orr Group - the company behind the popular Roll20 virtual tabletop - released its report for Quarter 4, 2017 recently. They report that D&D hard a larger than usual bump, and that Pathfinder also saw positive growth in the quarter. UP until recently, Roll20 has been an official licensee for D&D; as of this week, they are now an official licensee for Pathfinder and Starfinder, too, so those games might see a bump next quarter (though we won't see those figures for six months).

Starfinder rose from #15 to #11, and Star Wars increased to #5.

In separate news, Roll20 sent out a press release celebrating 3 million users. "Hot on the heels of our Pathfinder partnership, Roll20 has hit another new milestone: we now have over 3 million users! It's only been a year since we hit two million, but what can we say - these (digital) dice are hot. We've launched a major website update to keep those millions of players happy, with voice and video chat now integrated directly into our games along with an improved marketplace, fast adventure integration, and compendium upgrades to make finding, creating, and getting into games easier than ever."

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Roll20 Celebrates 3 Million Users; Launches New Voice and Video Chat, New Marketplace, and More

Premiere Virtual TableTop Levels Up Again as More Players Move Online

February 28, 2018: Roll20® celebrated reaching three million users today with the launch of new features to make the virtual tabletop experience even better. Starting now, all Roll20 users can chat with their groups using the improved voice and video chat, find great new adventures in the redesigned Marketplace, and set up games quickly and easily with a host of more streamlined features.

Three million users marks yet another critical success in the recent hot streak for Roll20. The service flew past the two million user mark in January 2017, meaning that it’s only taken Roll20 one year to grow its user base an additional 50%. Major publishers have already embraced the value that Roll20’s virtual tabletop offers players, with Paizo Inc. (Pathfinder®, Starfinder®) launching their official partnership with the service just yesterday.

With a huge variety of roleplaying systems available, players can start or join a game on Roll20 for free and play entirely through their web browser. Today’s new feature launch brings a host of additional creature comforts to make gaming easier than ever. The updates include:

• Improved Roll20 Video and Voice Chat: completely overhauled system makes talking to your party stable, simple, and fun (no guarantees about the plans they make using it, though!)
• Marketplace Redesign: easier to find, buy, and even gift new adventures to your friends
• Fast Adventure Integration: add publisher content to your games quicker than ever before
• Compendium Upgrades: page through a fully indexed, interactive guide styled just like the books

Roll20 Managing Partner Nolan T. Jones welcomed the news of this three million user achievement with a shout-out to the players. “When my friends and I started Roll20, there were only three players, and all of them were us. I'm pretty sure none of us had a million friends, so thank you to whoever keeps spreading the word.”

 

[smiteworks]

I don't think this is the proper place for an in depth discussion of a product that is a direct competitor to the topic of the posting. The support email (support@fantasygrounds.com) is linked on the launch screen of the program and we would be happy to help resolve any crash situations you may be experiencing.

For Roll20, I would like to say congratulations on the continued growth and advancement of their platform. Competition is a great thing for the consumers and improves the lives of gamers everywhere. It is great to see more gamers joining the hobby every day and finding the platform that best fits their needs -- regardless of which option they choose.

 

[Hussar]

[MENTION=87795]smiteworks[/MENTION]. That is a good point.

Apologies for detailing this with my rants.

 

[Sunseeker]

Strange that the number of d&d 5e players is only a small percentage more than number of games. I would expect at least 3:1 ratio.

Yes, I though that was very odd too. Makes you wonder what conclusions we can really draw from these statistics. E.g. are their loads of D&D 5E sessions being setup and never played?

It would suggest that a fair percentage of players are currently in more than one game.

This would be my guess as well. Rings true with my anecdotal experience.

It could also be representative of more numerous shorter games, which has certainly been an aim with 5E official campaign design. We've certainly all heard anecdotal reports of how brief those games can be be. Considering that the numbers for other games remained somewhat constant, it's reasonable to suggest those are longer, more established groups with more established campaigns.

 

[aramis erak]

Interesting to note the dubious groupings...

They collect the 5 different (and incompatible) Warhammer engines (WFRP1, WFRP2, 5 × 40K RPGs, and WFRP3) into one. The 5 40K RPGs are largely intercompatible, and sensibly could be joined, but the others?

Likewise, lumping Unisystem Lite (Buffy/Angel/Army of Darkness) with Unisystem Full (AFMBE, Terra Primate, Witchcraft)

Compare this to the non-grouping of the largely intercompatible Pathfinder and Starfinder...

Why does it feel like manipulated data?

 

[darjr]

Aramus, your kidding? Right? What possible crazy reason would anyone do such a thing?

 

[Sunseeker]

Interesting to note the dubious groupings...

They collect the 5 different (and incompatible) Warhammer engines (WFRP1, WFRP2, 5 × 40K RPGs, and WFRP3) into one. The 5 40K RPGs are largely intercompatible, and sensibly could be joined, but the others?

Likewise, lumping Unisystem Lite (Buffy/Angel/Army of Darkness) with Unisystem Full (AFMBE, Terra Primate, Witchcraft)

Compare this to the non-grouping of the largely intercompatible Pathfinder and Starfinder...

Why does it feel like manipulated data?

Starfinder is new. Much like 5E, they want to see how it stands on its own separate from Pathfinder. It's possible the other systems represent too few data points.

 

[Hussar]

Starfinder is new. Much like 5E, they want to see how it stands on its own separate from Pathfinder. It's possible the other systems represent too few data points.

That's very likely the heart of it. What's the point of breaking out the multiple versions of Warhammer, for example, when each one would be so small that they don't really matter? It's more about the relation between the games, rather than the total numbers.

I mean, if you lump all the "D&D's" together (including Pathfinder), that's around 70% of ALL GAMES being played. Taken singly, any other game is more or less a rounding error.

Another way of thinking about it though is from a publisher standpoint. All the Warhammer games are from GW. So, it makes a kind of sense to lump them together. Although, that being said, the FATE games got lumped together and they aren't from the same publisher, nor are they even particularly compatible.

I would guess a lot of it just has to do with a lack of data points. If we break the list right down to every individual system, it just makes the list really, really long with a bunch of "0.2% of games" on the list. I doubt it has anything to do with manipulating the data and more to do with just making the list easier to read.

Really, does it matter? Warhamster collectively is still only 2% (ish) of games. What information is being manipulated here?

 

[Hussar]

Just to add this. If we lump Starfinder with Pathfinder, how does the list change? Pathfinder+Starfinder is 13% of games and 29% of players as opposed to 12 and 29 for Pathfinder alone.

Umm, is that really making any difference?

 

[Sunseeker]

That's very likely the heart of it. What's the point of breaking out the multiple versions of Warhammer, for example, when each one would be so small that they don't really matter? It's more about the relation between the games, rather than the total numbers.

I mean, if you lump all the "D&D's" together (including Pathfinder), that's around 70% of ALL GAMES being played. Taken singly, any other game is more or less a rounding error.

Another way of thinking about it though is from a publisher standpoint. All the Warhammer games are from GW. So, it makes a kind of sense to lump them together. Although, that being said, the FATE games got lumped together and they aren't from the same publisher, nor are they even particularly compatible.

I would guess a lot of it just has to do with a lack of data points. If we break the list right down to every individual system, it just makes the list really, really long with a bunch of "0.2% of games" on the list. I doubt it has anything to do with manipulating the data and more to do with just making the list easier to read.

Really, does it matter? Warhamster collectively is still only 2% (ish) of games. What information is being manipulated here?

Right, and clearly the point of the graph is not to demonstrate how the entire gaming market is doing, it's just to demonstrate how 5E is doing in the market overall. The graphs for the other products seem fairly similar, you could probably boil the whole thing down to "5e vs THE WORLD" and it would show the same.

 

[Morrus]

Why does it feel like manipulated data?

You've got opportunity and means... but I'm struggling to find the motive here. What nefarious Machiavellian plot are you positing?