Last October The Orr Group, makers of Roll20, released a report which sparked plenty of healthy conversation. It said that Pathfinder was the single most popular RPG in the system but when you added up the editions that the D&D collective came top.
At the time Pathfinder was represented in 27% of games and 44% of players, D&D 3.5e was next with 18% of gamers and 45% of players and D&D 5e third with 12% of games and 17% of players.
The fourth quarter report shows a surge for D&D 5e. Pathfinder is still top with 24% of games and 42% of players, D&D 5e moves into second with 24% of games and 20% of players and D&D 3.5e slides into third with 16% of games and 43% of players. The Orr’s long (and large) infographic of the full chart can be found at the bottom of this post.
It looks like the ongoing releases from Wizards of the Coast with titles like the Monster Manual, Dungeon Master’s Guide and The Rise of Tiamat are having an effect.
However, the change in stats has other significant influences. It’s worth reading this blog post from The Orr Group that explains how the report is calculated. The information is taken from information voluntarily assigned to profiles. Just issuing a report based on those stats will influence how gamers use their profiles.
Co-founder and Roll20 spokesperson Nolan T. Jones explained;
We expected our sample size to grow with population, but we also believe more users are taking the time to select what games they are playing in reaction to knowing their selections are being noted by the roleplaying community via The Orr Group Industry Report,”
The Orr Group cites healthy numbers; nearly 26,000 listed games from over 18,000 players in the system.
I’m confused by the naming convention. What’s the difference between OSR and Original D&D? Is OSR all the old school games that weren’t published by TSR? I’m also confused by the name Original D&D. I thought OD&D only applied to the version from the seventies? Basic D&D from the eighties was B/X (Basic, Expert) by Moldvay, Marsh, Cook and BECMI (Basic, Expoert, Companion, Master, Immortal) by Mentzer, I thought. I also thought these were all collectively referred to as Classic D&D. Anyway, be that as it may, I was simply confused by the name Original D&D and the explanation listing… Read more »
kensanata It’s a minefield. OSR is a group, a movement and a community. It typically stands for “Old School Renaissance” but sometimes “Old School Retroclone” and “Old School Revival”. Different gamers will disagree whether a game is OSR or not. When it comes to interpreting Roll20’s data I’d suggest that 276 players used their profiles to indicate they’d be happy to play any OSR game. I think you’re right on how to categorise the D&D entries. That’s how I’d do it – and good find with that chart! The Orr Group blogged about how they compiled the data which reveals… Read more »
AndrewGirdwood Ah, I had missed it on my first read through but the screenshot where they show how to classify the game has the same info. At least it makes sense in that what people choose is what the statics will say. :)
Re last tweet, I was also surprised that 4e is so far behind 3.5… But what do I know? I’d still rather play 13thAge or Dungeon_World #rpgs
deepgreene GeekNative roll20app that’s because of older editions. If #dnd5e will be successful I think #dnd will be the first one again