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]

I stand corrected.

Still, Foundry is doing pretty well considering. I hope it blows up more in the future, especially for new games.

 

[gss000]

Those sales estimates are welcome. So it might it be entirely wrong that Roll20 numbers, despite it’s lack of favor for many PF 1 and 2 players may still be a decent handle on the larger trend? Maybe?

Maybe is the best I would say. All I would confidently say is it's not obvious that more people are playing on Foundry. I think if one is a doubter, you'll likely say it's not true more people play on Foundry (I fall in this camp based on what I've seen so far). However, if you are a booster, then this isn't at all ironclad evidence. More information is definitely needed.

And to be clear, this does not indicate whether a) PF2 is a success compared to other games; b) PF2 is doing as well for Paizo as it should at this stage in its life; or c) PF2 is growing, staying the same, or declining in popularity. All those have different answers and this may not even be relevant to that.

 

[darjr]

@gss000 Thanks.

As far as

A) I think there is no doubt that PF2 is a huge success. Especially compared to everything else besides 5e but nothing else can be compared to 5e. Even PF1 success levels compared to 4e was a hurdle of sorts. Even if the play numbers are now lower than PF1.

B) is trickier, but news is that Paizo has hired more staff. So I think it’s at least doing well enough for that.

C) I have no idea. But I think a gander at Pathfinder Infinite might help with that, but only tangentially. And not concretely.

 

[Gammadoodler]

That's a very good point! I stand corrected.


Yes. Another way to handle that is to divide the Roll20 numbers by an average number of players. Say a game on average is four players and a DM. The 120,000 accounts playing PF2 is then 24,000 games. With my generous estimates, if a quarter of Foundry licenses are playing PF2, and each license represents one table, they are just about the same number of games on each site. If double Fantasy Grounds' percentage, then there would only be 9,600 games, or 40% of what Roll20 has. If we ever have license download numbers, we could start making better estimates.

And one flaw of my method is you have to be generous with the assumptions without any additional information, although I'm sure what I did there is too generous. There is likely a good deal of overlap between the subscription/follower services.

I did find another interesting data point. The Forge (one of Foundry's common hosting solutions) includes some data on "Systems" installs on their site, specifically, % of games with the system installed.

So grains of salt as it relates to data sourcing, completeness etc. and it says nothing at all about the overall size of the player base. With that in mind... the number one installed game system is 5e at 77%. The number 2 is PF2e at 17% followed by Warhammer FRP, PF1, Savage Worlds, and Call of Cthulhu with a little over 5% each.

Since it seems to be possible to install multiple systems in a single game (or they're employing sorcerers that allow the total percentages to get past 100), it doesn't make sense to look at this as parts of a whole. But, it looks like there might be a story tell in how these systems relate to each other.

5e is installed 5x as often as Pf2e which is installed 3x as often as PF1.

Ir might not be possible to make the case that "all the 2e players are using Foundry", but there is some evidence 2e enjoys a stronger following there.

 

[Justice and Rule]

We also have some statistics from Fantasy Grounds, which shows PF2 largely rising alongside PF1 games and being way closer compared to Roll20.

Obviously this is a bit behind, but at the least we have a way better idea of the actual numbers behind things. If you want to include D&D 5E in there, throws off the chart a bit but it's still instructive.

I do wonder what their 2021 statistics will look like

 

[AtomicPope]

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...

I suspect they have a great satellite connection.

 

[AtomicPope]

I really like Cthulhu games but they're like board games in that they're designed to kick players out and end. So a Cthulhu campaign isn't like other RPG campaigns. There are times when the campaign is over, the PCs are insane or dead, and everyone is thinking about the next character or game.

 

[gss000]

I did find another interesting data point. The Forge (one of Foundry's common hosting solutions) includes some data on "Systems" installs on their site, specifically, % of games with the system installed.

So grains of salt as it relates to data sourcing, completeness etc. and it says nothing at all about the overall size of the player base. With that in mind... the number one installed game system is 5e at 77%. The number 2 is PF2e at 17% followed by Warhammer FRP, PF1, Savage Worlds, and Call of Cthulhu with a little over 5% each.

That's really interesting! Thanks for finding that. Do you have a link? Do they send out updates regularly?

Since it seems to be possible to install multiple systems in a single game (or they're employing sorcerers that allow the total percentages to get past 100), it doesn't make sense to look at this as parts of a whole. But, it looks like there might be a story tell in how these systems relate to each other.

5e is installed 5x as often as Pf2e which is installed 3x as often as PF1.

Ir might not be possible to make the case that "all the 2e players are using Foundry", but there is some evidence 2e enjoys a stronger following there.

Yes, this is actually a game changer for a lot of reason. First, until this, the only VTTs that I knew published table numbers (Roll20, Fantasy Grounds) had PF2 lagging PF1 use. One could argue that there was evidence that PF1 players were still not moving to PF2. There's now a case to say that's wrong. One instance isn't definitive, but it's not something to ignore. Second, as you said, there could be a stronger showing over at Foundry. With a VTT showing 17% of tables playing PF2, it's not a stretch to think if Foundry is as popular as people are saying, there could be 20 -25% of tables playing it. That is less a generous estimate to a potentially reasonable one.

 

[gss000]

We also have some statistics from Fantasy Grounds, which shows PF2 largely rising alongside PF1 games and being way closer compared to Roll20.

Obviously this is a bit behind, but at the least we have a way better idea of the actual numbers behind things. If you want to include D&D 5E in there, throws off the chart a bit but it's still instructive.

I do wonder what their 2021 statistics will look like

Yes! It was why I was more pessimistic in my PF2 outlook - it confirmed certain cases from the Roll20 numbers like more people are still playing PF1 than PF2.

If they release 2021 numbers, I'll be watching to see whether PF2 will ever overtake PF1 consistently.

 

[Gammadoodler]

That's really interesting! Thanks for finding that. Do you have a link? Do they send out updates regularly?


Yes, this is actually a game changer for a lot of reason. First, until this, the only VTTs that I knew published table numbers (Roll20, Fantasy Grounds) had PF2 lagging PF1 use. One could argue that there was evidence that PF1 players were still not moving to PF2. There's now a case to say that's wrong. One instance isn't definitive, but it's not something to ignore. Second, as you said, there could be a stronger showing over at Foundry. With a VTT showing 17% of tables playing PF2, it's not a stretch to think if Foundry is as popular as people are saying, there could be 20 -25% of tables playing it. That is less a generous estimate to a potentially reasonable one.

Forge "Systems" page

The percentages are included in the statistics when you click on the system. No idea regarding how that updates.