The Orr Groups Latest Stats: D&D Up 2%; Pathfinder Holds Steady; Apocalypse World & Star Wars Gain G

It's that time again - the latest game system usage stats from The Orr Group, who produce the popular Roll20 virtual tabletop software. This set of figures is for Quarter 4, 2016, and shows no real surprises - D&D 5th Edition remains in the lead by a strong margin, and some trends have coincided with big movies or video games, such as Rogue One and a Pokemon thing. D&D 5E has increased by over 2% again this quarter, with Pathfinder maintaining its position. Apocalypse World has increased again, as have some foreign language games.

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As always, data is pulled from Roll20 profiles, specifically the "Enjoys Playing" and "Seeks Group For" fields (for players) and My Campaigns (for game numbers); because players can list multiple games, figures can exceed 100%. They explain how it works here. As always, here's the data - make of it as little or as much as you wish!

See the previous quarter's statistics here. Quarter 1 2016 here.

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[Jester David]

Interesting how there's 25k D&D games but only 39k players. It looks like there's a lot of games with just a DM... Test games and the like.

 

[Parmandur]

Interesting how there's 25k D&D games but only 39k players. It looks like there's a lot of games with just a DM... Test games and the like.

Maybe DMs are disproportionately likely to fill out the relevant stats in their profile?

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[Mistwell]

Interesting how there's 25k D&D games but only 39k players. It looks like there's a lot of games with just a DM... Test games and the like.

I have 6 players and zero filled out the info on the types of games they like or are playing...

 

[Parmandur]

I have 6 players and zero filled out the info on the types of games they like or are playing...

Evidence for that hypothesis, anecdotal as it is...

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[JesterOC]

That one bit of data is indeed anecdotal, however the creators of the survey state that people are behaving much like his single sample indicated.

From the in-depth explanation of how the survey is made ...

"It’s from those two places [User Filled out forms] that we made The Orr Group Industry Report. Self-reported use of the Roll20 system. In the report we state we worked from a sample size of 25,000 games and 15,000 players– each one of those campaigns and players were active during Quarter 3, thus being included. That said, many, many users don’t select what games they are playing– in the last 24 hours, for example, over 6,000 games accessed and the vast majority of those have not selected what is being played. Additionally, a Game Master is more likely to indicate what campaign they’re starting than a player is likely to alter their profile as it has no effect on the player simply being able to join the Game Master’s session."

Source:
http://blog.roll20.net/post/100246471625/what-is-the-orr-group-industry-report-and-what

 

[darjr]

Interesting. So I wonder which the under reporting skews if at all.

 

[Parmandur]

Interesting. So I wonder which the under reporting skews if at all.

Probably impossible to determine; pretty close to junk data?

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[Mistwell]

Interesting. So I wonder which the under reporting skews if at all.

Probably impossible to determine; pretty close to junk data?

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"A Game Master is more likely to indicate what campaign they’re starting than a player is likely to alter their profile as it has no effect on the player simply being able to join the Game Master’s session."

 

[Parmandur]

"A Game Master is more likely to indicate what campaign they’re starting than a player is likely to alter their profile as it has no effect on the player simply being able to join the Game Master’s session."

Sure, but no guarantee that even a DM will fill his info...? So, not too much use, except indicating broad trends (5E is big dog, Pathfinder is little dog, and everyone else is a puppy).

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