Watching people play RPGs and board games online has never been more popular – and the boom in livestreaming on YouTube and Twitch is leading to a new wave of on-screen stars

Words by Richard Jansen-Parkes

STREAMING AHEAD

From increased sales, booming convention numbers and the success of this very magazine, it’s clear that tabletop gaming is enjoying a bit of a renaissance. There are dozens of strands that have all contributed to this trend, but it’s hard to get the numbers and stats needed to fully quantify their impact.

Recently, however, Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast revealed one interesting nugget of information: more than 50% of players who started with the roleplaying game’s latest fifth edition got into it through watching people play online. This is backed by numbers from popular streaming platform Twitch, which show that the amount of D&D content its users produce has been doubling each year since 2017. These are the kind of numbers that can shape an industry.

STRANGE ENCOUNTERS

It seems strange to call someone a veteran of an industry that’s only been around a handful of years, but if you could call anybody a veteran streamer it would be Will Jones.

The founder of Encounter Roleplay, Jones has been living, breathing and sleeping tabletop RPGs since setting the group up in 2015. What started as a hobby has morphed into a full-time career that has taken him across the globe.