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%

 

[ReshiIRE]

A bit disappointed of seeing Cyberpunk and Alien in a low position.

I suspect there's quite a number of Cyberpunk Red useres using Foundry; I know when I was planning to run it (still want to but I'm in a creative funk and I was going to be ambitious with that one), Foundry seemed like a no brainer due to the good support it had in Foundry, and the fact a big Cyberpunk community Discord I'm in pretty heavily recommends it.

Though I know it's not possible with Foundry (or some otehr VTTs), having a comprehensive number of games run in X system would be very fascinating. Especially since my understanding is that 5e is more than 50% of revenue or market share that Roll 20 is showing.

 

[jhilahd]

Can confirm. It's very nice, in case anyone hasn't heard.

Anyone have a clue as to why VTM suddenly rose? Was it just seasonal with Halloween, or has there been something going on to make the system more approachable? The first printing 5th ed book I have is so god damn unreable because of it's bad layout and organization that I don't have any clue if the system is good or not. If there was a readable revised version I would consider getting it and just chucking this travisty of print into the dumpster.

I think your Halloween suggestion is probably a strong reason. L.A. by Night helped also.

I'm sorry you had issues with it.
I just ran my first ever World of Darkness game and used v5. Other than some odd digging of rules here and there, I loved the system.
I ran a 6 game mini-chronicle (with one of those being our session zero) to my group who had never played it before. They're primarily d20 and Savage World gamers(system snobs) and this was the first long short term game with a system that wasn't one of those. And now they're asking for a full blown Chronicle. Oof.
I found the Worldofdarkness.com website and their discord channel helped me alot with questions about rules and things that I might have had issues with. I kept things as simplified as possible.

 

[bassplayer]

Nice to see Tormenta doing a good job up there. As long as I'm concerned, there isn't even an informal version of it's rules in english, which means Brazilian's TTRPG scenario is growing a lot. And I am pretty sure that 5e is way more popular than Tormenta here in Brazil.

 

[Mallus]

Of course Cthulhu's numbers are down. By this point everyone's character is either insane or dead.

 

[Paragon Lost]

It would be really interesting to see truly accurate numbers and breakdowns on a each game system and edition and from all the various online gaming platforms. Roll20s are just done so crazy that getting a real number about anything is just pure speculation.

 

[JThursby]

I would be really interesting to see truly accurate numbers and breakdowns on a each game system and edition and from all the various online gaming platforms. Roll20s are just done so crazy that getting a real number about anything is just pure speculation.

I would like that as well, but that would require a rather herculean effort of tracking and polling to get a clear picture of. The Orr groups quarterly reports are the "best" estimate we have, though all it really tells us is that Wotc, Chaosium and Paizo are the RPG triad and no one else has a comparable market share. We should just play what we want to anyways, a game doesn't get better because it's more or less popular.

 

[Paragon Lost]

I would like that as well, but that would require a rather herculean effort of tracking and polling to get a clear picture of. The Orr groups quarterly reports are the "best" estimate we have, though all it really tells us is that Wotc, Chaosium and Paizo are the RPG triad and no one else has a comparable market share. We should just play what we want to anyways, a game doesn't get better because it's more or less popular.

I think the bigger issue is getting them all to share. I'm sure most of the platforms have some clear ideas as to what's being played and how many.

 

[JThursby]

I think the bigger issue is getting them all to share. I'm sure most of the platforms have some clear ideas as to what's being played and how many.

As a customer of various VTT services, I would prefer they just not report on my activity to a third party. I value my privacy over assembling a report on RPG trends.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Astronauts are often sci-fi fans, as you might expect. But I don't know if the ISS gets internet. RPGs might be an effective way to pass long voyages as in space travel though...

One benefit of VTTs in space. Dice rolling is waaaay easier. Also, generally speaking, the tables used in tabletop gaming are dramatically less effective without gravity.

 

[Paragon Lost]

As a customer of various VTT services, I would prefer they just not report on my activity to a third party. I value my privacy over assembling a report on RPG trends.

As long as they aren't listing me or you for that matter as the individual I don't have a problem with them gathering the information for a general breakdown of what game systems are being played and the percentages.