Where are you? The hotbeds of tabletop gaming! [Top 500 cities in post #32]

Where are you? Actually, don't tell me - I'll tell you where you are. Not you, specifically, of course - but "you" as an anonymised aggregate.

"What's Morrus blathering on about this time?" is probably near the tip of your tongue right now. Well, WotC recently asked if I (along with, I assume, other large web communities of gamers) would be able to pull an anonymised list from Google Analytics of where the busiest towns and countries were in terms of traffic as a tool to help them focus their D&D Encounters and other efforts. Making sure they're taking D&D where the people are, so to speak. I figured you might also find the info interesting.

These are top 50 cities and countries in terms of visits over the last month. That's not to be confused with page-views (much higher) or unique visitors (lower) - it's the number of times someone visited the site, browsed for a while, and then left.

So, if you're looking for a hotbed of gaming activity, here's one list. Other lists may exist, but this is EN World's list.

As a side note - this data is completely anonymous. It just shows totals, not individual users. Nobody is able to look at it and determine where *you* are - just which cities have a lot of gamers in them.

[h=4]TOP 50 CITIES (visits - past month)[/h]
1. New York 14,199
2. London 11,702
3. (not set) 11,289
4. Toronto 9,597
5. Chicago 8,175
6. Melbourne 7,998
7. Seattle 7,147
8. Sydney 6,279
9. Montreal 5,166
10. Athens 5,153
11. Portland 5,062
12. Houston 4,979
13. Los Angeles 4,896
14. Bethesda 4,829
15. Minneapolis 4,760
16. Brisbane 4,433
17. Columbus 4,389
18. San Francisco 4,372
19. Washington 3,625
20. Vancouver 3,549
21. Ottawa 3,419
22. Dallas 3,345
23. Boston 3,341
24. Auckland 3,316
25. Austin 3,211
26. San Diego 3,196
27. Philadelphia 3,172
28. Denver 3,157
29. Edmonton 2,947
30. Rome 2,877 %
31. Singapore 2,851
32. Perth 2,630
33. Paris 2,629
34. Winnipeg 2,609
35. Calgary 2,584
36. Copenhagen 2,429
37. Madison 2,425
38. Sacramento 2,421
39. Zagreb 2,365
40. Milan 2,359
41. St Louis 2,321
42. Atlanta 2,317
43. San Antonio 2,311
44. Rio de Janeiro 2,284
45. Helsinki 2,208
46. Indianapolis 2,190
47. Phoenix 2,110
48. Las Vegas 2,076
49. San Jose 1,928
50. Madrid 1,907

[h=4]TOP 50 COUNTRY/TERRITORY (visits - past month)[/h]
1. United States 517,986
2. Canada 72,060
3. United Kingdom 51,309
4. Australia 26,069
5. Germany 20,564
6. Italy 15,986
7. Brazil 13,032
8. Netherlands 9,319
9. France 8,780
10. Spain 8,743
11. Greece 7,435
12. Sweden 7,377
13. Denmark 7,048
14. New Zealand 6,535
15. (not set) 6,421
16. Finland 5,926
17. Japan 5,311
18. Poland 5,027
19. Norway 4,711
20. Philippines 4,168
21. Russia 3,563
22. Belgium 3,109
23. Argentina 3,067
24. Mexico 2,931
25. Singapore 2,869
26. Croatia 2,816
27. Ireland 2,718
28. Israel 2,291
29. South Korea 2,188
30. India 2,140
31. South Africa 1,975
32. Austria 1,964
33. Switzerland 1,920
34. Hungary 1,815
35. Turkey 1,798
36. Serbia 1,509
37. China 1,400
38. Portugal 1,356
39. Malaysia 1,242
40. Romania 1,189
41. Iceland 1,179
42. Czech Republic 1,132
43. Chile 1,050
44. Ukraine 972
45. Taiwan 869
46. Indonesia 824
47. Hong Kong 711
48. Bulgaria 703
49. Peru 652
50. Slovenia 642

 

[fireinthedust]

Take note that Toronto is Number 3!!! (not including "not set" which is a nothing category, and likely means more Torontonians)

Compare the populations of New York and London (huge!) to that of Toronto, and we're talking about a gaming hotbed the likes of which... actually, come to think of it, we're higher than Seattle! How do you like that!

Yes, I'm optimistic... and may have missed a statistically important detail or two... but regardless, I think I'll go outside and talk loudly about D&D!

 

[jeffh]

I'm surprised (pleasantly) that Winnipeg rates so highly. There's maybe three quarters of a million people in the greater Winnipeg area, peanuts compared to most of the other places on this list (we're flanked on this list by Paris with its 2.2 million, albeit many of them non-English-speaking, and Calgary with its 1.2 million).

Also, I know a lot of the avid gamers here, in a city with a reputation of being the world's biggest small town, and I'm the only somewhat-regular poster here among that crowd - I have mentioned this site to people who work at gaming stores and had them shrug and say they'd never heard of it. Where are all these Winnipeg-based ENWorlders? A meetup or something would be cool.

JesterC, I don't know Calgary but I've always been impressed with the number and quality of stores in Edmonton. If these ratios were anything to go by, though, you'd expect Winnipeg's to be a lot better than they are .

 

[Morrus]

I'm surprised (pleasantly) that Winnipeg rates so highly. There's maybe three quarters of a million people in the greater Winnipeg area, peanuts compared to most of the other places on this list (we're flanked on this list by Paris with its 2.2 million, albeit many of them non-English-speaking, and Calgary with its 1.2 million)..

if you look at the Country list, you'll see why. RPGs just aren't that popular outside North America, with London being a standout exception.

 

[jeffh]

if you look at the Country list, you'll see why. RPGs just aren't that popular outside North America, with London being a standout exception.

And they seem to be proportionately the most popular in Canada (the US has about 7.2 times as many hits as Canada - based on population, you'd expect them to have 9 times as many instead).

However, that doesn't account for Winnipeg coming ahead of Calgary (also Canadian and with about one and a half times our population). Quebec and Hamilton, Canadian cities about the same size as Winnipeg, are nowhere to be seen. We're also ahead of much larger American cities like St Louis (41), Atlanta (42), San Antonio (43), Indianapolis (46 and the current home of GenCon!), Phoenix (47), San Jose (49), Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh (none on the list at all).

Apparently Winnipegers are hardcore gaming nerds.

 

[Jester David]

I'm surprised (pleasantly) that Winnipeg rates so highly. There's maybe three quarters of a million people in the greater Winnipeg area, peanuts compared to most of the other places on this list (we're flanked on this list by Paris with its 2.2 million, albeit many of them non-English-speaking, and Calgary with its 1.2 million).

Also, I know a lot of the avid gamers here, in a city with a reputation of being the world's biggest small town, and I'm the only somewhat-regular poster here among that crowd - I have mentioned this site to people who work at gaming stores and had them shrug and say they'd never heard of it. Where are all these Winnipeg-based ENWorlders? A meetup or something would be cool.

JesterC, I don't know Calgary but I've always been impressed with the number and quality of stores in Edmonton. If these ratios were anything to go by, though, you'd expect Winnipeg's to be a lot better than they are .

Edmontonian myself. Seen a few stores in Calgary but there's quite a few here. Was a lot of strong LG/LFR support in both for a while. And we had a bit of PFS until recently, but that seems to have died.

Added Winnipeg to my list and its ratio is pretty high as well. Again, the list is views not unique IPs so a handful of dedimicated ENers can skew the ratio. Could also be a sign that gaming is strong in prairies. But, then again, it's a predominately indoor hobby and what else are you going to do during the winter months of Sept-May?

 

[Morrus]

So I took the top ten in the country list and sorted them in order per capita. It seems that CANADA is the densest hotbed of gaming activity, followed by the USA and then Australia. European countries trail a long way behind, being comparatively uninterested (despite a massive boost from London).

Canada 1 in 478
United States 1 in 601
Australia 1 in 867
United Kingdom 1 in 1208
Netherlands 1 in 1791
Italy 1 in 3750
Germany 1 in 3974
Spain 1 in 5397
France 1 in 7478
Brazil 1 in 15090

Of course, bear in mind these are visits, not unique visits - so it's not actually saying 1 in 478 people in Canada read EN World. But it serves as an approximation of gaming density relative to each other.

 

[Mark Morrison]

Nice stats, Morrus!

Go Melbourne, #6 in the EnWorld stakes!

We're getting fired up for PAX Australia down here next July, the first time the event has been held outside of the US, so it's good to see we might have earned it.

M.

 

[Jhaelen]

if you look at the Country list, you'll see why. RPGs just aren't that popular outside North America, with London being a standout exception.

Germany seems to be pretty well represented, too, which makes me happy.

Also, never underestimate the language barrier: Most of my roleplaying friends would never consider visiting here simply because it's an English-only site.

 

[Morrus]

Also, never underestimate the language barrier: Most of my roleplaying friends would never consider visiting here simply because it's an English-only site.

Very true!

 

[Aeolius]

当然，你总是可以使用谷歌翻译 (Of course, one could always use Google Translate).