D&D General Some Interesting Stats About D&D Players!

The full cover spread for Phandelver and Below, by Antonio José Manzanedo​

GeekWire has reported on the recent D&D press event (which I've covered elsewhere). Along with all the upcoming product information we've all been devouring over the last day or two, there were some interesting tidbits regarding D&D player demographics.

• 60% of D&D players are male, 39% are female, and 1% identify otherwise
• 60% are “hybrid” players, who switch between playing the game physically or online
• 58% play D&D on a weekly basis
• 48% identify as millennials, 19% from Generation X and 33% from Generation Z
• The majority of current D&D players started with 5th Edition

 

[ad_hoc]

I gotta correct this - it keeps coming up.

WotC never claimed that 50 million people currently play D&D. They claimed that 50 million people had been played it over its lifetime. It was then misreported by a sloppy online source, and the misreported number has since been repeated ad nauseam. The number of current players would be much lower.

This has been gone over many times.

Your claim isn't correct.

D&D has had enormous year over year growth since 2014.

I suspect the number is larger than 50 million.

 

[Parmandur]

In the current data, that it shows there's no players older or younger than certain ages seems a bit off, given that past surveys have shown minorities there. It's a bit hard to believe that both the over-55 and under-15 cohorts have completely disappeared from D&D.

Of course, this current survey seems to have asked people to self-identify into generational brackets, the cutoffs for which are uncertain and always slowly changing. (e.g. the first time I heard "Boomer" it was in reference to those born 1946-1955, i.e. fairly soon after the war; since then it's expanded to include another decade or so) This IMO further hammers any hope of getting much useful data.

There is not a single "this current survey," they spoke about their market research results. Which is different than a survey.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

The player population for D&D is cross-generational, with the bulk of respondents (48%) identifying as millennials, vs. 19% from Generation X and 33% from Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012).

This is so, so wrong. If they are going to forget a generation it shouldn't be the Boomers. Gen X has that rightful status.

 

[Charlaquin]

The player population for D&D is cross-generational, with the bulk of respondents (48%) identifying as millennials, vs. 19% from Generation X and 33% from Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012).

This is so, so wrong. If they are going to forget a generation it shouldn't be the Boomers. Gen X has that rightful status.

They didn’t forget boomers, they just make up less than a percent of the playerbase.

 

[Blue]

As a member of Gen-X, WotC no longer cares about me, and that's fine with me because at this point I don't care about WotC either, so its a draw I suppose.

Can you expand on this? The article say 19% of players are Gen X. So at near 1 in 5, and ones with more disposable income than some of the other generations, I feel WotC will definitely care about us.

You don't need a rationalization not to care about WotC, but if you are going to ascribe one and post about it publicly, let's make sure it's factually accurate.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

This is based on 40 million players even though Hasbro had stated that 50 million have played. So I guess all of those are Boomers which would have been 10 million players which was the estimate put in (A)D&D ads in comic books and Dragon. So if that were the case, using proper definitions for the generations then:

Gen Z or Alpha. 29%
Millennials. 40%
Gen X. 19%
Boomer or Greatest. 16%

Modified by the statement that 19% of players are Gen X from above.

 

[R_J_K75]

Can you expand on this? The article say 19% of players are Gen X. So at near 1 in 5, and ones with more disposable income than some of the other generations, I feel WotC will definitely care about us.

You don't need a rationalization not to care about WotC, but if you are going to ascribe one and post about it publicly, let's make sure it's factually accurate.

48% identify as millennials, 19% from Generation X and 33% from Generation Z, Now I could be wrong but the way I interpret this is because Millennials and Gen Z make up 81% of the player base leads me to believe that these are the players who will be catered to the most. Is this factual correct, absolutely not but its my opinion. If I make up 1 in 5 players, I think WotC probably don't care and isn't too worried about losing me as a customer, If present trends continue, as with 5E, I'd imagine there'll be an influx of new younger players to quickly take my place. Again, not factually correct but just my opinion.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

They didn’t forget boomers, they just make up less than a percent of the playerbase.

Considering I'm on an FB group (D&D for Old Dudes) that has 37,199 members and Boomers out number Gen Xers 2 to 1 in there, I doubt it.

 

[jmartkdr2]

But this result doesn't disagree with any survey that I am aware of...? Even ENworld, pwr Morrus, skews young for the people viewing the site...younger than WotC market research number even.

The only difference here is previous surveys had a 40+ category, while this report (not survey, just a report about a survey) stops at Gen X and doesn't list Boomers at all. Which, if it's totally accurate means they both changed their methodology and found that there were so few Boomers it wasn't worth even mentioning them as a category.

Or, more likely IMO, the report isn't quite accurately reporting what the survey actually asked. If gen X was supposed to be 40+, it's totally in line with prior data.

 

[mamba]

This is based on 40 million players even though Hasbro had stated that 50 million have played.

it is based on neither, not sure where you got this idea from