Roll20 has posted its latest usage stats for Quarter 2, 2019, using a new method. Instead of only using "user selection data", they are now looking at the usage of character sheets across their 4 million accounts. As always, D&D comes in first, and is followed by Pathfinder and Call of Cthulhu (which rank differently based on whether you are looking at players or campaigns). The new counting method has resulted in some changes!
There's also a lot of uncategorised games -- 13%-14% of the total, which includes custom character sheets with no listed system, or games without character sheets.
One interesting facet of the Call of Cthulhu rise is that the average game length is about a quarter of that of other systems -- "We found that they have an average playtime of 11.9 hours, compared to 40 hour average game times for other systems on these charts."
So how's D&D doing? Back in 2015, D&D had 25% of games and 31% of players. In early 2018 it has surged to 61% of games and 70% of players. This year, however, the figure has dropped to 51% of games and 54% of players. It's hard to tell whether this is just due to the new method of counting.
Looking at those same three reports, Pathfinder had 21% of games and 40% of players (fairly similar to D&D's stats) in 2015, in 2018 had dropped to 10% of games and 27% of players, and is now sitting at about 6.5% of games and 8% of players.
Call of Cthulhu, the third placed game, began with 1.3% of games and 8% of players in 2015, increased to had 2.6% of games and 7.3% of players in 2018, and has grown in the last year to 9.5% of games but dropped to 3.4% of players.
As I mentioned, it's hard to tell how the new counting method has affected these figures.
There's also a lot of uncategorised games -- 13%-14% of the total, which includes custom character sheets with no listed system, or games without character sheets.
One interesting facet of the Call of Cthulhu rise is that the average game length is about a quarter of that of other systems -- "We found that they have an average playtime of 11.9 hours, compared to 40 hour average game times for other systems on these charts."
So how's D&D doing? Back in 2015, D&D had 25% of games and 31% of players. In early 2018 it has surged to 61% of games and 70% of players. This year, however, the figure has dropped to 51% of games and 54% of players. It's hard to tell whether this is just due to the new method of counting.
Looking at those same three reports, Pathfinder had 21% of games and 40% of players (fairly similar to D&D's stats) in 2015, in 2018 had dropped to 10% of games and 27% of players, and is now sitting at about 6.5% of games and 8% of players.
Call of Cthulhu, the third placed game, began with 1.3% of games and 8% of players in 2015, increased to had 2.6% of games and 7.3% of players in 2018, and has grown in the last year to 9.5% of games but dropped to 3.4% of players.
As I mentioned, it's hard to tell how the new counting method has affected these figures.