The Roll20 Team
The first quarter of 2020 showed widespread growth for nearly every game system on Roll20. This quarter, that trend continued and was amplified–we saw unprecedented growth across nearly every game system. So many of you are staying connected during this time by playing games together, and we’re honored that you’ve turned to Roll20 as the place to do it.
_Campaign Percentage: How many Roll20 campaigns use this game system.* _
_Account Percentage: How many Roll20 users play this game system.* _
*Only games with at least one hour of playtime are counted in these results.
It doesn’t take a particularly high perception check to see that D&D 5E continues to be the biggest RPG on our platform. This quarter, players around the world brought their dungeon-crawling campaigns online, and Dungeons & Dragons 5E saw the largest overall increase of any game system on Roll20. But it wasn’t the only game that flourished.
As more and more folks flocked to us for their gaming needs, driving universal growth on the platform, the composition of the games and their proportional popularity remained about the same as the previous quarters, with a few notable exceptions. In other words, the pie got bigger, but it was still sliced the same way, give or take. And everyone likes more pie! Everyone likes more games, too.
Fantasy games still make up the bulk of the campaigns on Roll20, but we’ve seen a rise in more space- and sci-fi-themed campaigns this quarter. Cyberpunk (both Red and 2020) saw big increases in the number of campaigns. We predict a continued rise in the old versions of Cyberpunk 2020 as well as the newer Cyberpunk Red as we close in on the release of CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2020 later this year. Or maybe more and more of you are just getting really into neon and D10s. Hard to say.
Additionally, both LANCER, a mecha combat RPG system, and Shadowrun, the classic urban fantasy/cyberpunk RPG system, saw notable growth. We’re excited to see unique settings and themes gaining a bigger foothold on the platform.
Back on the fantasy side of things, we noticed one interesting data point we wanted to share: This year, we saw more Pathfinder Second Edition games than D&D 3.5 games for the first time ever. Welcome, new Pathfinder players! With the release of the Pathfinder Second Edition Advanced Player’s Guide, we expect to see Pathfinder continue to grow, moving forward.
_These campaigns are campaigns with the largest growth with at least 1000 concurrent games in Q2. _
Roll20 was truly an international home for gaming this quarter. Players from around the world showed up in a myriad of ways - playing on the site, streaming tutorials and actual plays, and bringing a greater diversity to the systems and types of games being played. We saw growth from Tormenta, the popular and acclaimed Portugeuse RPG celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Das Schwarze Auge, (The Dark Eye) a German language fantasy RPG, and Chroniques Oubliées, a French language fantasy RPG.
We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our Roll20 community. Whether you’re a weekend warrior with hundreds of hours of Roll20 playtime, a new user just picking up the hobby for the first time, or anyone in between, we appreciate you spending your game time here with us.
View the full report below:
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Compare with the previous report here!
About The Orr Group Industry Report
The Orr Group Industry Report explores trends within the tabletop gaming industry with a focus on the online tabletop community. Created in 2014, the Orr Report has always aimed to go beyond the topic of “what games have sold recently” and really centralize the focus on what games people are continuing to play and enjoy on an ongoing basis. Everyone from players to publishers can get a bird’s eye view for the usage and popularity of different systems on Roll20 and identify trends for tabletop as a whole.
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