It seems like Dungeons & Dragons, the granddaddy of role-playing games, has come through its transition to a millennial audience with flying colors. The team at Wizards of the Coast tells Polygon that one of the big reasons for the success of D&D’s 5th edition is performative online streaming. Another factor is apps that allow the average person to play tabletop games with their friends online. Data recently released by the Roll20 platform gives us our first indication of just how big a deal these D&D apps are.
D&D’s 5th edition completed its launch in 2014 with the publication of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. In the years since it’s also expanded into several licensed online apps, including Fantasy Grounds on Steam. Another, more streamlined way to play is the Roll20 app, which includes integrated voice, text and video chat wrapped up inside a web browser. You can even purchase entire adventure modules, the same ones available in print from Wizards of the Coast itself, to run inside the virtual tabletop.
But how many people are actually using it? Is the population growing?
The answer, for Roll20 at least, is an emphatic yes.
The player population is nearly triple what it was two years ago, and more than 52 percent of Roll20’s games are played with 5th edition. That’s up from just over 27 percent this time two years ago. In fact, the growth of Roll20 as a platform is almost entirely attributable to the growth of D&D’s 5th edition and now represents more than 60 percent of its player base.
Meanwhile, the percentage of the Roll20 population playing Pathfinder, D&D’s younger sibling, has remained relatively flat. But if you look at the data in detail, you can see that the number of Pathfinder players has doubled.
Even better, here is a comparison of 5E's growth on Roll20 over 3 years. pic.twitter.com/Z8v4mKwk0B
— Alphastream (@Alphastream) July 20, 2017
In fact, the number of players for most systems is higher on the Roll20 app than ever before. It looks like a rising D&D tide is raising all of tabletop role-playing’s ships.
For the very best tabletop RPGs of the year, check out our roundup of this year’s ENnie award nominees. And check back in August for our coverage of the 50th anniversary of Gen Con, the nation’s largest tabletop gaming convention.