Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 shoesterhsu Dec 07, 2009 1:27:37	I've been trying to figure out how many people actually play D&D out there. There are claims that 20 million people have tried it since 1974, but that's a little vague. Is it about half a million (500,000) or is it more? It'd be easier to figure out if we knew how many 4th Edition Player's Handbook have sold and maybe even how many 3rd Edition PHBs as well.
#2 Shiftkitty Dec 07, 2009 9:07:09	And 2nd Edition and 1st Edition, and Old School, and various other editions (Moldvay, Holmes, etc.) These editions are still played, some having only small differences but different enough that fans are rabid about them. You'd also have to take into account the number of people who play who inherited their books, who bought them used, who plays but doesn't own any books themselves, etc. Gonna be a hard number to count. Now add the people with social hang-ups who don't want anyone to know that they play, or else are in certain government/corporate positions where this sort of thing might look bad and oy vey! But since you're asking, count me in!
#3 boraxe Dec 07, 2009 9:46:48	I'd not think 4th ed sales is a good indicator of overall numbers as, thouhg it is popular, it seems to be the edition with the least throughput of previous-edition players. Though it doesn't rival video games in terms of popularity, I believe it is actually far more popular than most people, even fans, imagine. I recall when the 3.5 books were released they were at the top of the Amazon.com sales charts, behind only the then-latest Harry Potter release. When you are outselling everything except Harry Potter you are selling a lot of books.
#4 Malcadon Dec 07, 2009 15:55:54	And 2nd Edition and 1st Edition, and Old School, and various other editions (Moldvay, Holmes, etc.) These editions are still played, some having only small differences but different enough that fans are rabid about them. You'd also have to take into account the number of people who play who inherited their books, who bought them used, who plays but doesn't own any books themselves, etc. Gonna be a hard number to count. Now add the people with social hang-ups who don't want anyone to know that they play, or else are in certain government/corporate positions where this sort of thing might look bad and oy vey! Not to mention all the retro-clones (like Labyrinth Lord), and near-retros (like Mutant Future). They may not have Dungeons & Dragons on their cover, but fans consider them to be more D&D then 4e. Its hard to tell how many still play the old-school games, but I know they have a large community (I know folks from all over the globe). As for how many people played D&D since 1974, it hard to measure beyond the influence D&D has had on our poplar culture - mostly video games, Japanimation (anime), the internet, and of course the whole freaking tabletop gaming industry!!! And with regards to the social stigma of playing D&D, Harry Patter seem to have stolen the limelight with the whole "D&D is the Devil's Game" ideology (but stigma is still there), the Israeli Army's stance on personnel who play D&D is unclear (they have been known to discriminate against soldiers who play), and for the most part, folks still think that its some sort of nerdy boardgame (oblivious to the fact that their "Warcrack" game is just a dumb-down, OCD version of classic D&D).
#5 shoesterhsu Dec 07, 2009 16:12:42	Nah, don't include off-brand D&D stuff. I'm not talking about how many people play tabletop games like Magic the Gathering or war miniatures or any of that stuff. I'm purely talking about D&D and D&D alone. How many people play it? I mostly want to know how many people play 4th Edition, but including 3rd Edition numbers would interest me as well. As for 1st and 2nd Edition, I'm not so keen as those numbers wouldn't have any real relevancy the health of the modern industry.
#6 toastedamphibian Dec 07, 2009 16:57:07	All of them. All of the people that play D&D do, indeed, play in this world. Your arrogance is astounding.
#7 generalhenry Dec 07, 2009 16:58:52	7
#8 EscherEnigma Dec 07, 2009 19:33:06	All of them. All of the people that play D&D do, indeed, play in this world. Your arrogance is astounding. I was trying to be clever and witty, but I'll take arrogant... You can't take arrogance, that's my domain!  It's right there in my sig!  You can't have it!
#9 pigknight Dec 07, 2009 20:34:43	>9000.
#10 Tony_Vargas Dec 07, 2009 21:44:15	PH sales wouldn't be a bad indicator.  Most people who play at least pick up this book.  Some may not, but there'll also be people who buy it and don't play, and book sales to institutions (yes, there's a PH in many a library).  There are ~200k folks in the Wizard's Community.  The D&D group is the largest, a little better than double the size of the MtG group, and there's a lot of crossover.  It wouldn't be completely unreasonable to assume most of those 200k play D&D.    There's probably at least one person in any given 4e group that's on-line, and groups run about 6 on average, so that'd be over a million, in a very rough estimate. If you can get DMG sales, you could generously estimate that only DMs buy the DMG, and that each DM has 5 players.... Anyway, it's in the low millions.   Fewer, for instance, than persons suffering from schizophrenia.  (The next time someone tells you you're crazy to play D&D, stop and think about that for a second).
#11 FitzNighteyes Dec 07, 2009 21:56:57	Anyway, it's in the low millions.   Fewer, for instance, than persons suffering from schizophrenia.  (The next time someone tells you you're crazy to play D&D, stop and think about that for a second). You don't have to be crazy to play D&D ... but it helps!!!!! Multiple exclamation marks ... are a sure sign of a diseased mind.
#12 boraxe Dec 08, 2009 8:37:16	Multiple exclamation marks ... are a sure sign of a diseased mind. Thank you, Terry Pratchett.
#13 boj0 Dec 08, 2009 9:53:26	Slight problem I forsee: wasn't one of the big issues illegal .pdf downloads?  The number of people who play with stolen e-books can throw off the numbers. Or for that matter, I don't own a single Shadowrun book but I've still been playing for over two years EDIT: not illegally!  I use the GM's book
#14 spellwyrm Dec 08, 2009 10:34:21	... and a lot of that has to do with D&D being the first and best known... (sigh) D&D was notthe first RPG on the market, it was simply the first to be commercially successful and able to obtain a strong enough base in order to support itself. (/history lesson)
#15 boraxe Dec 08, 2009 11:03:26	D&D was notthe first RPG on the market, it was simply the first to be commercially successful and able to obtain a strong enough base in order to support itself. Well technically, though many extant forms of play feature the adoption of roles as a mechanic, D&D was the first commercially available roleplaying game.
#16 spellwyrm Dec 08, 2009 11:08:38	Well technically, though many extant forms of play feature the adoption of roles as a mechanic, D&D was the first commercially availableroleplaying game. Semantics. D&D was not the first, nor will it be the last.
#17 boraxe Dec 08, 2009 11:14:01	Semantics. No, it is not semantics. D&D was not the first, nor will it be the last. I never claimed either.
#18 spellwyrm Dec 08, 2009 11:15:24	Thank you.
#19 toastedamphibian Dec 08, 2009 16:15:30	All of them. All of the people that play D&D do, indeed, play in this world. Your arrogance is astounding. I was trying to be clever and witty, but I'll take arrogant... You can't take arrogance, that's my domain!  It's right there in my sig!  You can't have it! Well, yell at T_A... he is the one handing out your stuff! I'm sorry Escher, but such things have to be maintained. When is the last time you universally declared that all people that are not on this world do not 'do a thing'?
#20 EscherEnigma Dec 08, 2009 16:52:34	All of them. All of the people that play D&D do, indeed, play in this world. Your arrogance is astounding. I was trying to be clever and witty, but I'll take arrogant... You can't take arrogance, that's my domain!  It's right there in my sig!  You can't have it! Well, yell at T_A... he is the one handing out your stuff! I'm sorry Escher, but such things have to be maintained. When is the last time you universally declared that all people that are not on this world do not 'do a thing'? I don't make a habit of making pointless declarations to people who are beneath me.  If you were clever, you'd know the truth-value of such statements without me informing you, and if you're not, then it's not worth my time to enlighten you. ... Ok, I think that's a pretty good save.
#21 toastedamphibian Dec 08, 2009 17:17:42	All of them. All of the people that play D&D do, indeed, play in this world. Your arrogance is astounding. I was trying to be clever and witty, but I'll take arrogant... You can't take arrogance, that's my domain!  It's right there in my sig!  You can't have it! Well, yell at T_A... he is the one handing out your stuff! I'm sorry Escher, but such things have to be maintained. When is the last time you universally declared that all people that are not on this world do not 'do a thing'? I don't make a habit of making pointless declarations to people who are beneath me.  If you were clever, you'd know the truth-value of such statements without me informing you, and if you're not, then it's not worth my time to enlighten you. ... Ok, I think that's a pretty good save. Seems forced. Color me unimpressed.
#22 Malcadon Dec 08, 2009 18:10:11	All of them. All of the people that play D&D do, indeed, play in this world. Your arrogance is astounding. I was trying to be clever and witty, but I'll take arrogant... You can't take arrogance, that's my domain!  It's right there in my sig!  You can't have it! Well, yell at T_A... he is the one handing out your stuff! I'm sorry Escher, but such things have to be maintained. When is the last time you universally declared that all people that are not on this world do not 'do a thing'? I don't make a habit of making pointless declarations to people who are beneath me.  If you were clever, you'd know the truth-value of such statements without me informing you, and if you're not, then it's not worth my time to enlighten you. ... Ok, I think that's a pretty good save. Seems forced. Color me unimpressed. Now, lets see how long this can go on!
#23 Mechalibur Dec 08, 2009 19:33:55	All of them. All of the people that play D&D do, indeed, play in this world. Your arrogance is astounding. I was trying to be clever and witty, but I'll take arrogant... You can't take arrogance, that's my domain!  It's right there in my sig!  You can't have it! Well, yell at T_A... he is the one handing out your stuff! I'm sorry Escher, but such things have to be maintained. When is the last time you universally declared that all people that are not on this world do not 'do a thing'? I don't make a habit of making pointless declarations to people who are beneath me.  If you were clever, you'd know the truth-value of such statements without me informing you, and if you're not, then it's not worth my time to enlighten you. ... Ok, I think that's a pretty good save. Seems forced. Color me unimpressed. Now, lets see how long this can go on! This is what all the cool kids are doing, right?
#24 miracleofmagick Dec 09, 2009 10:26:46	Show All of them. All of the people that play D&D do, indeed, play in this world. Your arrogance is astounding. I was trying to be clever and witty, but I'll take arrogant... You can't take arrogance, that's my domain!  It's right there in my sig!  You can't have it! Well, yell at T_A... he is the one handing out your stuff! I'm sorry Escher, but such things have to be maintained. When is the last time you universally declared that all people that are not on this world do not 'do a thing'? I don't make a habit of making pointless declarations to people who are beneath me.  If you were clever, you'd know the truth-value of such statements without me informing you, and if you're not, then it's not worth my time to enlighten you. ... Ok, I think that's a pretty good save. Seems forced. Color me unimpressed. Now, lets see how long this can go on! This is what all the cool kids are doing, right?
#25 zombie_babies Dec 09, 2009 10:27:57