Roll20's Latest Report Shows Growth Everywhere!

Roll20 has released its latest usage stats. These are from Quarter 1 2020, and while there isn't much change in the relative ranks of different games since 2019, they report that nearly everything has doubled during these pandemic times when a lot of gaming has shifted online to virtual tabletops like this.

Since Q4 2019, D&D has climbed back up (from a previous drop) from 47.54% to 50.4% of campaigns. Call of Cthulhu has dropped from 15.35% to 12.15%. Pathfinder has dropped from 4.97% to 4.49% (but Pathfinder 2E has climbed from 1.13% to 1.23%), and Warhammer has dropped from 1.48% to 1.3%. World of Darkness and Star Wars both also show drops. Note these are relative shares, not absolute figures -- in most cases the actual number of games has increased. Notably, Call of Cthulhu remains the second most popular game on Roll20 by a large margin.

The first chart below shows the campaigns run for each system, and the second shows the players. Roll20 says that only games with at least one hour of playtime are counted in these results.

Those with the biggest growth are HeroQuest (4000%!), Old School Essentiants, Blades in the Dark, and L5R.

Here's the full chart. One of these days I'll put all this data (and the Fantasy Grounds data) on a combined chart like the one I do for ICv2 stats.

 

[Reynard]

It’s almost like the people arguing about those points on forums are a minority and non-representative of gamers as a whole.

Also, free PDFs only applies to subscribers. You need to buy separately otherwise, so you might as well get it off Amazon.

Or do both. I prefer to support my FLGS, but either way you can buy a dead tree version from whatever place meets your needs and then buy the PDF from Paizo. And in you want to use FG, the price of that PDF comes off the price of the FG module, which is super generous of them.

 

[Morrus]

For example, in Morrus's area it seems to be going pretty well.

That's not quite what I said. I said at one convention in June 2019, the tables were packed. I can't speak for the country as a whole.

 

[Aldarc]

That the truth is likely somewhere in the middle.

Of course that could also be a false middle.

 

[macd21]

That said, the total PF pie (PF1+PF2 combined) grew a fair bit with the release of PF2 -- the total pie increased by about 40%*. That suggests that PF2 drew in a bunch of players from somewhere. And if they didn't come from PF1 (as the first bit of data suggests), then they must have come from other TTRPGs and people new to TTRPGs.

I think it’s more likely that the increase is due to PF1 players who weren’t running a campaign when PF2 came out deciding to start one with the new system. They may have been ‘lapsed’ PF1 players, or people who just held off on starting a campaign because they were waiting for the new edition to come out.

And it’s those kind of factors that make the Roll20 stats a dubious way to draw conclusions about the overall hobby.

 

[Jester David]

That said, the total PF pie (PF1+PF2 combined) grew a fair bit with the release of PF2 -- the total pie increased by about 40%*. That suggests that PF2 drew in a bunch of players from somewhere. And if they didn't come from PF1 (as the first bit of data suggests), then they must have come from other TTRPGs and people new to TTRPGs.

It could also be from people who want to play PF2 but whose in person games are still PF1 or 5e. Or who can't find a game in real life.

I know I went to Roll20 to play Star Trek Adventures because I wanted to play that game but finding a meat space group was unlikely.

Or it could easily have come from 5e fans who were lapsed PF1 fans returning to Paizo. A 40% increase in PF numbers wouldn't even offset the new 5e players added in that time period.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

I know I went to Roll20 to play Star Trek Adventures because I wanted to play that game but finding a meat space group was unlikely.

This is kinda what I use Roll20 for: finding games for RPGs that I can't easily find a group for in order to test a game out and see if I'd like it.

 

[LotsOfLore]

Wow... I'll add my anecdotal evidence to the pool, even though it's just that: me (mostly GM) and my players (friends from Italy and Spain) went from PF1 to PF2. It took us one session to realise how incredibly better the new edition is with respect to the previous.
We have never felt the need to go back to PF1. In fact if someone asks me to play or run a 1st ed adventure I reply that I would gladly convert it to PF2 first . I personally wouldn't go back to PF1 even if they paid me.
Some of my friends still play D&D 5e, but they are mostly switching to pf2.
I also play Starfinder with different friends. I love it to bits even though I suffer its unrefined still 1e burdened system

 

[Caliburn101]

D&D is becoming the Amazon of ttrpgs - hoovering up the competition by forcing them to make their unique games '5e Compatible' Even Trudvangr is doing it now. If you don't use 5e you cannot sell your products... If this goes on for much longer there won't be much left by way of system originality with anything remotely close to higher levels of ongoing support as all the oxygen in the market will have been snaffled by WoTC. I don't see this as healthy at all...

 

[darjr]

That's kinda always been true. Almost.

But see Call of Cthulhu on the rise. Other companies seem to be doing great too. And if the rising tide makes for succesfull other 5e companies, that is good in the long run.

 

[embee]

D&D is becoming the Amazon of ttrpgs - hoovering up the competition by forcing them to make their unique games '5e Compatible' Even Trudvangr is doing it now. If you don't use 5e you cannot sell your products... If this goes on for much longer there won't be much left by way of system originality with anything remotely close to higher levels of ongoing support as all the oxygen in the market will have been snaffled by WoTC. I don't see this as healthy at all...

On the other hand, World of Darkness was a real thing. It succeeded and thrived at a time when "role-playing game" meant Dungeons & Dragons. Same with Call of Cthulhu.

Consider D&D's sister title - Magic: The Gathering. MTG was, and still is, the 800 lb. gorilla of CCGs. But there was a huge variety of other CCGs available right in the middle of MTG's heyday. And just as the 90s had White Wolf and Chaosium, look at Modiphius' ever growing portfolio of games. They're not hurting. They're doing well enough to keep being able to buy rights to IP.

No RPG will ever have what D&D had - notoriety. The media and Congress gave D&D free advertising through the 80s. The Satanic Panic made D&D a cultural touchstone. That is an invaluable asset. However, what does exist now is POD, crowdsourcing, and the ability to self-publish.

Also, let's not forget quite possibly the greatest thing that WOTC did: the OGL. That was WOTC's doing.