Roll20's Latest Usage Report: D&D Steady, Cthulhu Down!

Roll20 has released it's latest quarterly report -- and has a new format which features less numbers but prettier graphics! Everything is percentages now, rather than absolute numbers.

D&D is in the lead as ever at 52.7% (down 1%), followed by Call of Cthulhu at 11.9% (down 4.4%) then Pathfinder at 3.2% (down 0.2%) (Pathfinder users apparently use Foundry these days). That's a big drop for Cthulhu which has been on a steady rise for the last year or two.

D&D and Call of Cthulhu Climb Again in Roll20's Latest Stats

Roll20 has released its latest usage figures. These are for Q2, 2021. And they have a new fancy format! D&D is, of course, still right up there at the top with nearly 54% of the market -- up from 53% in Q1 of this year. Call of Cthulhu continues its inexorable rise, climbing from 11% to 16%...

www.enworld.org

Some systems are called out --

• Tormenta (Brazilian) rose 45%
• Vampire the Masquerade rose 500%(!)
• Powerd by the Apocalypse is up 130%
• World of Darkness overall is up 550%
• WFRP is up 50%
• Modiphius' 2d20 is up 160%

 

[J.Quondam]

I wonder if the majority of gaming groups now use a VTT (either remotely or for in-person, and how many of each); or if most are still mainly pen & paper games?
It would be interesting to know, but I suppose there's no way to answer that.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

Meaning? You think I can't decide if something is too expensive for me? Elaborate, please..

You say it is much more expensive...

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

I wonder if the majority of gaming groups now use a VTT (either remotely or for in-person, and how many of each); or if most are still mainly pen & paper games?
It would be interesting to know, but I suppose there's no way to answer that.

For me the best option is to run an in person game with maps on a player's screen controlled by DM. I switch to Foundry and never come back to miniatures and pencils

 

[Guest 7025638]

You say it is much more expensive...

Compared to using the free accounts of Roll20 and not buying assets or anything from there (essentially, not paying for it any way) Foundry is much more expensive. Fooundry is way above our options here.

 

[Gorgon Zee]

One thing to note is that the headline seems to be assuming Roll20 is the measurably which games should be evaluated as to popularity. But it makes just as much sense to reverse that outlook and rewrite it as:

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Roll20's Latest Usage Report: Cthulhu players leaving, D&D remains steady​

Roll20 has released it's latest quarterly report -- and has a new format which features less numbers but prettier graphics! Everything is percentages now, rather than absolute numbers.

Only D&D players continue to frequent Roll20 steadily. Call of Cthulhu player now only comprise 11.9% (down 4.4%) then Pathfinder at 3.2% (down 0.2%) (Pathfinder users apparently use Foundry these days). That's a big drop for Roll20 which seen a steady rise in Cthulhu players for the last year or two.

 

[Justice and Rule]

As someone who doesn't know a lot about computers, I find Roll20's fewer options to be much more streamlined than Foundry.
All I have to do is download a map, token, or art and drag it onto the screen of Roll20. Foundry means you're making subfolders for your campaign, saving it in the correct path, etc.
Even navigating from one map to the next is more complex for me in Foundry.

Roll20 is anything but streamlined. Organizing characters, maps, and anything else is just an absolute nightmare, not to mention trying to manage storage space. With Foundry, it's nice to have your own folders to search from, but within the actual interface itself it's just that much easier to organize; you could drop everything into a single file folder and it wouldn't matter because it's so damn easy to organize things when you put them into the VTT itself.

Plus the actual act of putting these things together is just so much easier in Foundry. I can wall up a map lightning quick compared to Roll20, and stuff like lighting is just way, way simpler. Every interface and feature is just so much more intuitive compared to Roll20, largely because Roll20 looks like a product over a decade old while Foundry looks like one that is constantly updating.

 

[Retreater]

Roll20 is anything but streamlined. Organizing characters, maps, and anything else is just an absolute nightmare, not to mention trying to manage storage space.

The only thing you have to do on Roll20 is to drag the entry and put it on the folder or subfolder - dragging and dropping with a mouse.
Putting in dynamic lighting is not difficult to do on Roll20, though it can be a little time-consuming (but no more so than Foundry).

 

[Gammadoodler]

Compared to using the free accounts of Roll20 and not buying assets or anything from there (essentially, not paying for it any way) Foundry is much more expensive. Fooundry is way above our options here.

Yes, but you are dividing by zero here. Any cost will be "much more expensive" by that standard.

In this case, it's saying less about the cost of Foundry than it is about your tolerance for additional cost.

There's nothing wrong with choosing a lower cost/free option if that's what you can afford. It is misleading, though to those who don't have such inflexible budgets. It'd be less misleading to say "and there is no option to use it for free" since that is the real barrier to entry you care about.

 

[darjr]

You say it is much more expensive...

If this isn’t some privileged talk!
Just FYI the D&D game day from WotC adjusted pricing for certain regions because the tickets for players there were outrageous. Just because a price is affordable to you doesn’t mean it isn’t out of the question for someone else.

These software platforms play in a world market.

 

[Justice and Rule]

The only thing you have to do on Roll20 is to drag the entry and put it on the folder or subfolder - dragging and dropping with a mouse.

When I was doing it, I was mass-loading and I just found the organizational system of Roll20 to be a mess. Never organized things as I wanted it. I can way more cleanly organizes things in Foundry.

Putting in dynamic lighting is not difficult to do on Roll20, though it can be a little time-consuming (but no more so than Foundry).

Having made absolutely massive maps on both, I have to disagree. I go to the lighting layer, I instantly see all the light sources and can modify them as I need or even turn them off with a single click. With Roll20, when I was using it, I was placing down objects with a lighting trait and shrinking them down to hide. Walls are similar, with the different options being incredibly useful (the terrain wall option is so damn useful for small alleys to give a sense of place, since you can show off the buildings around you rather than it just looking like a skinny hallway).

For me, the biggest benefit of Roll20 is the integrated video chat. Everything else is feels like it is dated.