Roll20 Now Has 10 Million Users

Roll20's user base has doubled since 2020, and is now at a height of 10 million users.

In 2020 Roll20 had 5 million users, and it had 3 million users two years before that. In February 2021 it reported 8 million users.

A recent blog post says that "From 2017 to the end of 2019, Roll20 grew five times over (in both staff and revenue), and the pandemic more than doubled that growth."

Dicebreaker reports that the platform reported in a press release that new updates were coming, including a UI overhaul, performance improvements, and new features for GMs.

In other news, Roll20 now has a new CEO, Ankit Lal. Nolan T. Jones,co-founder of the company, is stepping back.

 

[CubicsRube]

I've bought foundry as i wanted to usd their dynamic lighting, animated maps and location based sounds, but the support for the systems I run are too absent, and I'm not willing to put in the hours creating class abilities, monsters and the like just to use for a single session or so.

Roll20 does feel like it's from the last generation in terms of UI and background tech, but one thing it does do that I loke is that it makes improv items and manual entry of things easy. If I have an unexpected encounter, i don't need an actice library of goons or to quickly stat something up. I can just drop down a token, enter some numbers on the token and i'm mostly good to go. I think roll20 is still the easiest in this respect as the other VTTs try to automate too much. Which seems to work fine if all you want to do is play d&d and a small handful of other rpgs.

 

[Jer]

Roll20 does feel like it's from the last generation in terms of UI and background tech, but one thing it does do that I loke is that it makes improv items and manual entry of things easy.

This exactly - all I need for my online games is a shared whiteboard space where players can move their tokens around. The ability to upload my own images and maps is nice as well. The ability to hide parts of the map and reveal them as they explore is a bonus.

And Roll20 gives me all that and is simple for my players to use. I keep thinking I should get a subscription just to support the site, but I keep running up against the fact that I wouldn't actually use anything that isn't already on the free tier anyway. I figure when I bump up against my 100meg upload limit I'll subscribe.

 

[payn]

I wonder if this is counting the accounts registered, versus active users. I was a Roll20 user from 2012 until 2021, when I switched to Foundry. I think a lot of those registered accounts are no longer active on Roll20 for a variety of reasons.

Yeap, I ditched Roll20 for Foundry and haven't looked back. Still have an account tho.

 

[ctorus]

I use - and pay for - Roll20 still because a) It's browser based which is easy for my players, b) I like the dynamic lighting, and most importantly c) I have a load of resources & macros there which I absolutely could not be arsed to regenerate elsewhere.

Oh and also there's a half decent 4e module there. Does Foundry have anything created for 4e?

 

[TheSword]

That makes sense, for free use Roll 20 easily offers the least restrictive offering. But yeah, it's not really competitive when you decide you want to start paying for a VTT. I can't really think of a reason why you'd pay to use Roll 20 over Fantasy Grounds or Foundry especially.

It has the perfect balance between ease/accessibility and support. The character builder alone is the single most useful tool for introducing new players to the game.

Unless foundry has changed a lot I find it particularly awkward to set up and invite people to. With all kinds of stumbling blocks and glitches. Particularly annoying when it has a $50 entry fee. It isn’t the money that stops me using Foundry it’s the effort to get it up and running. Something that Roll20 makes effortless.

 

[Retreater]

Oh and also there's a half decent 4e module there. Does Foundry have anything created for 4e?

Yeah. It has the basics of the character sheet but no official compendia, character creation, etc.

 

[darjr]

It works well via that DnDBeyond browser plug-in.

Not perfect though.

 

[Retreater]

It works well via that DnDBeyond browser plug-in.

Not perfect though.

Those of us who didn't buy stuff on DnDBeyond are out of luck on Foundry. It's a 5e desert - nothing on there at all. So I'll be keeping with Roll20 where I've already purchased my stuff.
I think Roll20 implements the rules, compendiums, character creation options, etc., pretty well when you buy the content from Roll20. No need to buy stuff on DnDBeyond, try to import it into Roll20, run various applications and sites at once.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

As I recall (this question gets asked every time) it's accounts ever created, not active users.

Then it's more like 10 million visitors have passed through the front doors? Not so much 10 million users using Roll20?

 

[Jd Smith1]

Besides the dynamic lighting, and the ability to draw on the thousands of great maps I collected while using MapTool on a LAN for a decade, what I love is the automated PC sheets. Click a button, and weapon attacks, spells, or saving throws are rolled with all mods on display. Tap another button, and the spell, ability, talent, etc is right there for everyone to see. It handles all the nuts and bolts, letting me focus purely on GMing.