Critical Role To Critical Role or not...That is the question

[IvyDragons]

Ah, okay, check the actual quote: "The company claims that over 50 million people have played Dungeons & Dragons to date..."

That's not people currently engaged with the game, that's cumulative number of people over all time who have ever played.

Still seems high. Numbers break down that about 1/2 the dnd user population is in the USA. So you telling me 1 in 13 people in the US have played D&D... no way. Ok some are dead now, but in 1 in 15, still no.

 

[Parmandur]

Still seems high. Numbers break down that about 1/2 the dnd user population is in the USA. So you telling me 1 in 13 people in the US have played D&D... no way. Ok some are dead now, but in 1 in 15, still no.

I mean...probably, at this point.

 

[J.Quondam]

Still seems high. Numbers break down that about 1/2 the dnd user population is in the USA. So you telling me 1 in 13 people in the US have played D&D... no way. Ok some are dead now, but in 1 in 15, still no.

I don't think it's too inconceivable, especially if you include all the "I played sometimes with my boyfriend in highschool" or "we'd play at summer camp" or "me and the bros played when we visited cousin alvin that one time" and so forth.

 

[Umbran]

Yeah, but the biggest chunk of players is under 24, 36% of 50 million.

I think you are misreading this.

There's 50 million total people who have played at least once, over all recorded human history.

There's another number of current players - which is probably defined as "people who currently play at least once a month" or some such. It will be much less than 50 million. WotC does not tell us that number. I've seen estimates of 10 to 13 million, but cannot speak to the accuracy of those estimates.

The "players under 24" is 36% of current players, current active community, not of players across history.

 

[Parmandur]

I think you are misreading this.

There's 50 million total people who have played at least once, over all recorded human history.

There's another number of current players - which is probably defined as "people who currently play at least once a month" or some such. It will be much less than 50 million. WotC does not tell us that number. I've seen estimates of 10 to 13 million, but cannot speak to the accuracy of those estimates.

The "players under 24" is 36% of current players, current active community, not of players across history.

I'll grant all that...but the point still remains, Critters are still a fraction of D&D fans no matter which way you slice it. An active and engaged segment enthusiastically embraced by WotC? Yes, but not the "main factor" in 5E success as posited in the OP.

 

[Oofta]

I think you are misreading this.

There's 50 million total people who have played at least once, over all recorded human history.

There's another number of current players - which is probably defined as "people who currently play at least once a month" or some such. It will be much less than 50 million. WotC does not tell us that number. I've seen estimates of 10 to 13 million, but cannot speak to the accuracy of those estimates.

The "players under 24" is 36% of current players, current active community, not of players across history.

If true, and I'm not certain anyone knows, the estimate we're given of how many people watch CR (not just the live stream) is still around 10% of that total.

I am curious, where do you get your numbers of how many people currently play D&D? Because I've tried to find that number to no avail.

EDIT: the number was set at 40 million "fans" in 2019, that number was increased to 50 million in 2020, we've seen double digit growth since then. In addition, on Roll20 alone the estimate is 3 million. I couldn't find number of unique visitors to Fantasy Grounds, but D&D accounts for 70% of the players there.

So 10-13 million seems low.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Really Hasbro worries about the number of products linked to D&D brand sold.

 

[Azzy]

I'm mostly neutral towords the show—I don't watch it (having the same or similar issue to watching/listening to it as I do listenng to audio books), but I'm happy it exists and is bringing people to the game. As others have said earlier, 5e was already a rousing success before CR became a big thing, but I do belive that it's certainly helped push 5e's popularity.

 

[Fifth Element]

I'll grant all that...but the point still remains, Critters are still a fraction of D&D fans no matter which way you slice it. An active and engaged segment enthusiastically embraced by WotC? Yes, but not the "main factor" in 5E success as posited in the OP.

Yes, but a fraction like 1/10 is a heck of a lot more important than a fraction like 1/200.

And OP indicated they strongly disagree with the idea that CR is the main driving factor, but posted a poll to get others' opinions.

 

[Fifth Element]

and not representative of most D&D games IME

Has anyone said it is representative of most D&D games?

I have no clue why people would watch others play D&D when they could play themselves.

Possibly similar reasons why people watch televised sports or gaming streams. Plus, of course, in this case you also have the possibility of people being fans of particular actors who are on the show and want to watch them. There are many reasons why people might want to do something that you personally don't want to do, after all.

INSHO if you have time to watch CR, you have time to play D&D instead. Yeah, I know, people are busy, they can't find players, etc. Crap IMO. You think it is hard to find and organize a game now?

There are so many assumptions built into this, both about how people play D&D and about how people watch CR. Someone had already pointed out before your post that they like to put CR on when doing some other activity, such as exercising. You can't play D&D "in the background" like you can put a show on in the background while doing something else. Meanwhile many people strongly prefer to play D&D with their friends. If their friends are not available, they prefer to do something else rather than play with strangers. Again, people often have different preferences than you do.

Try it in the 80's before gaming, video games, anime, comics, and such things were NOT mainstream in any way, shape, or form. To be clear I am not saying finding a game or group is easy, but you can do it if you really want to IME.

Plenty of people who watch CR do have an active D&D group. That doesn`t mean they can all drop everything and play D&D whenever. So here`s another tidbit: you can both be playing in an active D&D group and also watch CR when not actually gaming. Two of the players in my group watch CR, the other five (myself included) do not, for example.