I'm new to D&D and have started as an adult. My preconception was that it was mainly played by young teens and that me and my 30+yo friends were unusual.
However, most of the D&D community on YouTube appear to be adults - most of whom have been playing since they were kids themselves.
I participated in a public table at a local store and most of the tables were populated by adults - albeit, mainly young adults.
TL;DR: If anyone knows if this has been asked before or has some stats, let me know!
30-50 seems to be the major chunk from my experiences (I couldn't pick an average in that block though). However many new players younger than that age bracket have been coming into the hobby with 5th edition and Twitch streams (likely parent players getting their teen and older children into it as well) that I've no idea where the average would sit.
Lesse...the average age of a D&D player. Mearls probably has a survey that addressed this. As one of the above posters mentioned 5e streams on Twitch and Youtube have created new "junkies" or customers for TTRPGS. Those new players from my experience range in ages from 10-40. Blame Critical Role for this influx..Mercer and Co. are great.
I, personally, am 46 and started with the 80s as an early teen with the Red Box. I would like to think I am average for that cohort. The 5e only crowd skew younger in my experience though.
I started playing DnD in my late teens but I'm in my 30s now; the rest of the people I play with are also in their late-20s to early-30s, with the ones who started playing as adults outnumbering those of us who started in our teens.
I suspect that the demographics of DnD players have shifted over time similarly to comic book fan demographics - that is, several decades ago it was primarily kids/teens, but now adults in their 30s make up a bigger percentage, if not an outright majority.
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
It would be interesting to see the stats. I'm in my 50's; dabbled with 1e/AD&D as a kid and came back to 5e at the behest of my (then preteen, now teen) son a few years ago. He and my daughter "infected" their friends. I now run a weekly table of high schoolers + 1 middle schooler. My daughter's off at college now, and there are 5e (and Pathfinder, and....) groups there. So my experience is mostly on the young end currently. That said, at our family reunion this summer my upper 70's parents played for the first time, and my mother in particular is eager to play again!
Public Mod Note(MellieDM): Hello! Please do not revive old threads from so long ago (2018) -- You can absolutely create a new thread to discuss this with our present members. Thank you!
I'm Thinking of Joining and a teen, what would you say is about the minimum age to be ¨Accepted¨ not treated as a kid.
Public Mod Note
(MellieDM):
Hello! Please do not revive old threads from so long ago (2018) -- You can absolutely create a new thread to discuss this with our present members. Thank you!
My completely anecdotical feeling is that the "average age" probably is in the late 30's.
Quite a few of us started playing in the late 80's early 90's and is now pushing 40. I think there was a kind of "drop" in recruitment in the first decade or so of the 2000's. Computergames and MMORG's "took" a lot of the players. Then something happened in the 2010's and more people started playing traditional roleplaying again. Quite a few games were rereleased as fundraisers, the indie-games of the early 2000's (which were funny, but not all the time very playable), paved way for new and more "stream lined" rpg-games. I think 5e is a good example of that. Computer games has made the old classics of the 90's with endless tables and rules "meaningless", the "new" games focus more on ease of play and storytelling. Something that probably suits us around 40 who wants to play, but no longer have the opportunity to spend each night playing...
So I guess at around 40 I consider myself around the average RPG-Joe, but I certainly hope there are coming new people into the game that lowers that average :-)
I started playing when I was 10 or so in the early 90's with a buddy's dad as our DM and i'm 35 now. That was back in 2nd ed. It seems to me that it's kind bi-modal. You have a bunch of 30-50 somethings who've played since 1-3rd edition and you have a huge number of new people who seem to be in the 14-20 range. and are just learning the hobby.
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What do you suppose it is?
I'm new to D&D and have started as an adult. My preconception was that it was mainly played by young teens and that me and my 30+yo friends were unusual.
However, most of the D&D community on YouTube appear to be adults - most of whom have been playing since they were kids themselves.
I participated in a public table at a local store and most of the tables were populated by adults - albeit, mainly young adults.
TL;DR: If anyone knows if this has been asked before or has some stats, let me know!
I'd be interested to know what the age of players is now compared to 30 years or so ago as well (if anyone has those stats)!
30-50 seems to be the major chunk from my experiences (I couldn't pick an average in that block though). However many new players younger than that age bracket have been coming into the hobby with 5th edition and Twitch streams (likely parent players getting their teen and older children into it as well) that I've no idea where the average would sit.
- Loswaith
My group and I are in our mid 20s (23-27), and 5e is the first TRPG we got into (some of us played one session of pathfinder 1 in college).
Lesse...the average age of a D&D player. Mearls probably has a survey that addressed this. As one of the above posters mentioned 5e streams on Twitch and Youtube have created new "junkies" or customers for TTRPGS. Those new players from my experience range in ages from 10-40. Blame Critical Role for this influx..Mercer and Co. are great.
I, personally, am 46 and started with the 80s as an early teen with the Red Box. I would like to think I am average for that cohort. The 5e only crowd skew younger in my experience though.
I started playing DnD in my late teens but I'm in my 30s now; the rest of the people I play with are also in their late-20s to early-30s, with the ones who started playing as adults outnumbering those of us who started in our teens.
I suspect that the demographics of DnD players have shifted over time similarly to comic book fan demographics - that is, several decades ago it was primarily kids/teens, but now adults in their 30s make up a bigger percentage, if not an outright majority.
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
It would be interesting to see the stats. I'm in my 50's; dabbled with 1e/AD&D as a kid and came back to 5e at the behest of my (then preteen, now teen) son a few years ago. He and my daughter "infected" their friends. I now run a weekly table of high schoolers + 1 middle schooler. My daughter's off at college now, and there are 5e (and Pathfinder, and....) groups there. So my experience is mostly on the young end currently. That said, at our family reunion this summer my upper 70's parents played for the first time, and my mother in particular is eager to play again!
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My current group has teenagers, 20s, 30s, and 40s.
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I'm Thinking of Joining and a teen, what would you say is about the minimum age to be ¨Accepted¨ not treated as a kid.
Six to sixty...
Dnd is for everybody.
My completely anecdotical feeling is that the "average age" probably is in the late 30's.
Quite a few of us started playing in the late 80's early 90's and is now pushing 40. I think there was a kind of "drop" in recruitment in the first decade or so of the 2000's. Computergames and MMORG's "took" a lot of the players. Then something happened in the 2010's and more people started playing traditional roleplaying again. Quite a few games were rereleased as fundraisers, the indie-games of the early 2000's (which were funny, but not all the time very playable), paved way for new and more "stream lined" rpg-games. I think 5e is a good example of that. Computer games has made the old classics of the 90's with endless tables and rules "meaningless", the "new" games focus more on ease of play and storytelling. Something that probably suits us around 40 who wants to play, but no longer have the opportunity to spend each night playing...
So I guess at around 40 I consider myself around the average RPG-Joe, but I certainly hope there are coming new people into the game that lowers that average :-)
Ludo ergo sum!
I started playing when I was 10 or so in the early 90's with a buddy's dad as our DM and i'm 35 now. That was back in 2nd ed. It seems to me that it's kind bi-modal. You have a bunch of 30-50 somethings who've played since 1-3rd edition and you have a huge number of new people who seem to be in the 14-20 range. and are just learning the hobby.