12 Players for every GM: Groupfinder hits 10,000 users and reveals where the tabletop bottlenecks are

Groupfinder, an Estonia-based tabletop matchmaking platform, surpassed 10,000 registered users in October 2026 and released its second State of Tabletop report analysing 4,277 player profiles and 2,686 groups across 56 countries. While Dungeons & Dragons still commands 59% of all posted groups, the platform’s data exposes a 12-to-1 player-to-GM bottleneck in horror and cyberpunk roleplaying games, alongside an Old School Renaissance (OSR) movement that collectively runs more active tables than Pathfinder 2E.

The platform reached 10,287 users at the end of September 2026. After sitting at just 725 users in October 2025, sign-ups accelerated in November 2025 to average roughly 850 new users per month, nearly doubling the 5,564 users recorded in Groupfinder’s April 2026 report. With 84% of the user base joining in 2026, the dataset now holds enough critical mass to show where player appetite fails to convert into active games.

D&D 5E (2014) vs D&D 5.5E (2024) Adoption

Dungeons & Dragons remains the default entry point on Groupfinder, accounting for 59% of all groups ever posted (mirroring the ~60% recorded in April 2026). Because players select an average of 2.7 systems on their profiles, at least three out of four players on the site are looking for a D&D table.

Splitting the 2014 rules (5E) from the 2024 revised rules (5.5E), however, reveals a sharp adoption lag between players and Game Masters:

Top 10 non-D&D roleplaying games and GM bottlenecks

In its April 2026 report, Groupfinder pooled first-edition and second-edition Pathfinder into a single entry. Separating the two editions confirms that Pathfinder 2E is the largest standalone alternative to D&D with 767 total listings (104 groups and 663 player profiles), drawing 2.6 times the overall interest of Pathfinder 1E. However, Pathfinder 1E still claims fifth place on its own with 292 total listings and 48 active groups, running more active tables than either Vampire: The Masquerade or Call of Cthulhu.

Daggerheart holds second place with 559 total mentions (78 active groups and 481 player profiles) barely a year after release. Vampire: The Masquerade (359 mentions) has overtaken Call of Cthulhu (312 mentions) for third place, while Cyberpunk RED (185 mentions) drops to sixth following the Pathfinder split. Further down the top 10, Savage Worlds (118 mentions), mech RPG Lancer (105), Shadowdark (104), and Starfinder 2E (97) round out the chart.

Raw popularity does not guarantee a game. Comparing interested player profiles against active groups exposes where GMs are in shortest supply:

Aggregated playstyles: OSR overtakes Pathfinder 2E

Because indie roleplaying games fracture their community across dozens of standalone titles that share core rules or design philosophies, single-title rankings make those movements look smaller than they are. Shadowdark is the only OSR game to crack the individual top 10 (in ninth place with 104 mentions).

When Groupfinder aggregated every system on the platform into four core design families, the hierarchy shifted:

• OSR & NSR (Old School Renaissance / New School Revolution): 114 active groups across titles including Shadowdark, Old-School Essentials, Mothership, Mörk Borg, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Dolmenwood, and Cairn. Counted as a single family, OSR has more active groups than Pathfinder 2E (104) and maintains a healthy 3.9 players per group ratio. Adding pre-3rd Edition D&D rules (OD&D, AD&D 1E and 2E, B/X, BECMI) adds another 17 groups for 131 classic dungeon-crawling tables in total.
• PbtA (Powered by the Apocalypse): 39 active groups built on Apocalypse World’s 2d6 “moves” engine (Monster of the Week, Masks, Dungeon World, City of Mist, Kult: Divinity Lost). Every single PbtA group tracked on Groupfinder runs 100% online, with 6.3 interested players per group.
• SWADE (Savage Worlds Adventure Edition): 25 active groups. Every tracked group listed the core Savage Worlds rules rather than specific settings like Deadlands or Pathfinder for Savage Worlds. Alongside Shadowdark (~35% in-person), SWADE is a physical-table outlier with 28% of groups meeting in person.
• FitD (Forged in the Dark): 10 active groups (Blades in the Dark, Slugblaster, A Fistful of Darkness). With 7.4 interested players per group, FitD is the hardest indie playstyle to find an open seat in.

In-person demand and table fill rates

Beyond system choices, Groupfinder’s dataset highlights a mismatch between where GMs host games and where players want to sit, alongside exit-survey results from 909 GMs who closed their group listings:

• The Physical Table Shortage: 81% of groups run online, whereas only 65% of players are looking for an online game. Conversely, 35% of players want to play at a physical table, but only 19% of groups offer in-person sessions, creating a queue of nearly 3 players for every in-person group compared to 1.3 players per online group.
• Do Groups Actually Fill Up?: Of the 909 GMs who closed their group posts and answered Groupfinder’s exit survey, 57% closed because their table was full, 24% found their entire party directly on Groupfinder, while 33% filled remaining seats elsewhere. Only 12% gave up because they couldn’t find players, and 13% cancelled because they no longer wanted to run the game.
• Session Cadence and Campaign Length: 85% of groups run multi-session campaigns, 14% run one-shots, and 1% run West Marches or living-world games. 63% of tables meet weekly, 15% meet fortnightly, and 2% meet monthly.
• User Geography: Half of Groupfinder’s users with a location set are based in the United States (50%), followed by the United Kingdom (9%), Estonia (7%), Canada, and Germany.

You can browse the full dataset and system directory in the Groupfinder State of Tabletop 2026 report.