Player Data Doesn't Lie | D&D vs Baldur's Gate 3

Baldur's Gate 3 is even more popular than I thought! Let's review the data on just how many more players it had than D&D Beyond (and possibly all of D&D) in 2023. ▶️ More below! ⏬
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#dnd #dungeonsanddragons #baldursgate3

[@BobWorldBuilder]

💥 My book, Delve, is LIVE on Kickstarter! www.kickstarter.com/projects/bobworldbuilder/delve-5e-shadowdark?ref=apoi0j

[@High-Tech-Geek]

Why would you block data with your face overlay? 3:01 - 3:40 What's the last column?! Also... THANK YOU for correcting the Y-axis!

[@ceno10101]

wait your actual name is bob, or is it robert and bob is just a nickname?

[@GlidingBoulder]

4:40 I don't play DND, you have to PAY to unlock races like it's download content but they don't even Make anything?? You're just paying them for the privilege of "playing" a character race WTF? That's the biggest ripoff I've ever heard of. "How can we harvest every cent out of the nerds? I know! We'll put Levels behind a paywall!!!" - Dungeons and dragons probably... Insane

[@lordmortos979]

You can't be bob in bg3! Try it.

[@TheRealTiburon]

The difference in numbers by class is also because in BG3 characters like Shadowheart, Lae'zel and Gale are integral to many story and quests so theres little reason to roll another Cleric, Fighter, Wizard etc...

[@vektracaslermd743]

As a data scientist, altering the vertical axis scale like that is a war crime.

[@CompactOpenSet]

Bob thinks he is way more scientific than he is.

[@bonderoff]

My jaw dropped, and I’m not a scientist in the slightest

[@jackattackhissnack]

This is dnd. War crimes is what we do here 😂

[@jstewart_1]

That is what happens when you let someone in marketing have access to data tools.

[@relint12]

@@CompactOpenSetwasn’t Bob’s scale just a linear scale graph of Dndbeyond’s random and unnecessary log function scale.

[@parkerlee4775]

Important considerations for BG3’s data: player choices exist within the context of party balance and which companions you decide to use. Paladin and Sorcerer have high representation because they don’t exist in the core 6 (or really at all) and cleric has low representation because your auto-assigned companion Shadowheart serves the role. My first character was a cleric until I realized I didn’t need him to be, and switched to paladin. Then my next was a sorcerer.

[@luizhdcosta]

Also Paladin, Sorcerer, Warlock are all CHA base classes, which allows you have a main character with good skills for dialogue.

[@romanabanin2216]

Same. I didn't want to have same classes, so I choose paladin. Also Dark Urge and Oathbreaker are thematically go hand to hand so the choice was never an option for 1st try

[@romanabanin2216]

P.s. actually there was a choice, because I love playing barbarians with their rage screams from the patch 7 was released, so it was kinda difficult

[@romanabanin2216]

@@luizhdcosta and somehow Astarion as a rogue still has better bonuses and just way more skills

[@Aeivious]

My thoughts exaxtly, and to wizards and warlock, their personal stories will never be as thematic or flavorful as wyll's or gale's

[@TitaniumDragon]

One thing worth noting about the BG3 data is that because you get characters of specific classes right at the start of the game. there is a major disincentive to play those classes. In particular, the first two classes you run into are a fighter and a cleric, so that likely affects their popularity. The D&D Beyond data is also skewed because human and fighter are the two defaults, meaning that a lot of basically blank characters are "human fighters" because they didn't actually get made beyond being "made".

[@mattc9598]

Slightly off topic but a 4-fighter playthrough is fun as hell. Some bosses don't even get a turn. 4 fighters at max level + action surge = 24 attacks in the first turn phase alone, and each of those attacks will be heavy

[@michasokoowski6651]

Also, charisma characters are more popular because people want their character to be the face of the party

[@Bjrn-AndreasLamo]

Did people know that you get a fighter and healer at the start? I had never played DND and didn't play fighter because i didn't know how op they are

[@LecherousLizard]

@@mattc9598 I didn't even make any proper build in BG3. I just made Battlemaster PC, then rolled with default Lae'zel (eldritch knight), Karlach (berserker) and Shadowheart (whatever type of cleric she is)*. Only slightly rerolled Lae'zel to slap Gloves of Dexterity on her. Let's say that even with a team like this the fourth guy (Shadowheart in this case) was... mental support? She didn't do any damage and her healing and other buffs were barely ever needed, but the fourth guy was never needed for me, so I didn't bother respec'ing her. Between the PC and Lae'Zel, even Karlach was struggling to matter in most fights. And Lae'zel wasn't properly spec'd either! _* - Sorry for the boys, but they just look bad, mediocre at best, so I just rolled with those three for aesthetic reason, though it's still merely "The best available" not "Good". Hell, I was running Dragonborn MC, because nothing else I could make with the character creation looked good enough to go "Yeah, I'm fine looking at this character for 100+ hours"._

[@LecherousLizard]

@@Bjrn-AndreasLamo Ignoring the fact you can respec everybody about 5 hours into the game, the aforementioned fighter and cleric characters appear in the game's prologue, about... 5 minutes in, so I reckon, quite a lot of people just redone their character before even getting out of the prologue.

[@falfires]

Popularity of Paladin and Sorcerer for new characters in BG3 may have something to do with those classes not being represented in the canon companions you get, at least near the beginning of the game. The players may have wanted to avoid repeating classes in their party, or see how that class would work in the game (I know I played a Pally partly because of those reasons).

[@jorgiebutt]

Same here. I made a pally because it appeared as if this campaign screamed “INSERT A TANK HERE” since the cast posters highlighted non-tank like characters. Dragon Age does the same. Spell Casting characters are overdone for me. The only other class I’d consider would be a Ranger with beast taming, but every iteration of this pairing seems limited except if it’s an NPC or villain, apparently.

[@mintkit1064]

That's what I think! I picked bard because the party was all angry and not amicable at all 😂

[@darryl4874]

I think too, Sorcerers and Paladins have a tendency to be quite high-powered, which can appeal to people looking for strong build such as Sorlocks (Sorcerer-Warlocks) or Pallocks (Paladin Hexblades) which is not unlike min-maxing at the table (which can be fun, but can be a little game-breaky for the DM)

[@jorgiebutt]

@@darryl4874 I love it when my scripts get broken. The entire campaign devolves into coin flips

[@MsHojat]

@@darryl4874I think the game differs somewhat in what stuff is strong; especially if building around the special powers and items available in the game. One thing about the game is that certain circumstances of casters share spell slots in powerful ways that shouldn't be possible in the original game. Like if I recall correctly if you're a high level wizard and low level warlock the warlock gives slots that can be used for high level spells which is kinda OP.

[@CodjHD]

For the data on Cleric being the least popular class: It makes sense since the most popular companion is shadowhearth, which means you already have a cleric in your party in most cases.

[@thedarkness75]

Exactly. Clerics are always unpopular but the fact that the most beloved companion is a cleric really drives the numbers down even more. They released numbers about the most popular and the most romanced companions and shadow heart was number one by a large margin

[@HereForEvermore]

ik this is a typo but I really, genuinely love the name “Shadowhearth.” stealing that as a location name for a future campaign

[@graywolfdracon]

That is interesting. I play a cleric in BG3 and I never use Shadowheart. Partially because her abilities are redundant and partially because her character annoys me.

[@AndreyKrichevsky]

Ironically enough, the cleric is a class that has the most potential for reactivity in dialogue, since you will get different options based on your chosen deity. And some of the deities have a direct connection to the story or characters - Seluna to Shadowheart and Shadow Cursed Lands, Mystra to Gale, Lathander to the Githyanki Creche, Vlaakith to the Githyanki and Lae'zel, Lolth to the Drow and Underdark... Playing a cleric has the best chance of making your character feel connected to the story even without an origin.

[@thedarkness75]

@@AndreyKrichevsky playing a cleric of Selune is almost a totally different experience and I would recommend it to anyone playing the game at least once. I did it just because I was interested to see how Shadowheart would react and it was 100% worth it. Totally different character dynamic

[@andrewsenapatiratne2013]

I think another big reason Paladin, Sorcerer, and Warlock (and sort of bard) are so high in BG3, is because they are all Charisma based characters. When you play BG3 in single player, your character acts as the face of the party, so it makes sense to build a highly charismatic face.

[@Tintelinus]

Definitly. You are likley the main character in BG3 far more than you would be in any well run dnd game and Charisma is just very powerful thanks to that

[@jeremiahbond2810]

Not for me. I never play charismatic characters ever. I play a non charismatic cleric mostly. I never played a sorcerer in the pre-release version of BG3. I beat the game as a sorcerer and i had it for years prior to. Reasoning, double skin tag for dragonborn sorcerer and an emphasis on bombarding the enemy with magic. I almost always played a dual swordsman or cleric prior to realizing priority for the game. Which to me was dealing as much damage as possible and as quickly as possible.

[@DoomsdayR3sistance]

The only issue I see with this is Bard being so low but this could be due to bard having lackluster DPR and defence, being very support focused. Paladin are seen as the "knight" class and Oath of Ancients is an alternative to being a druid for still being good with animals but I do fear partly it's due to Vengeance being notorious for vow of enmity

[@339blaster]

Have you played the game? Charisma isn't too hugely significant in BG3. You can perfectly influence NPCs by picking the correct dialogue options.

[@Cassandra_Solidor]

@@DoomsdayR3sistance The irony is Swords Bard in BG3 is absurdly strong partly due to all the item synergy it gets. Muliti-classing it was two levels of Paladin is the highest damage output in the game.

[@davidmcgee9569]

The data about the number of characters created on the app (6 million) vs the number of players rolling dice (1.9 million) makes sense to me because while I love the DnD Beyond for character creation, tracking everything, and in every way simplifying the game, I also love to role my own dice. I play every week with 6 other people and all of us use real dice on the table. The only time I've rolled in the app was an errant key stroke.

[@alextrollip7707]

Same I have three in person games I use DND beyond for. Then a couple of board game shop games I'll DM or play in. I have only one online game which I roll in

[@xaderalert]

Yep, I'm playing in two campaigns, and in both cases, every player creates and tracks characters in D&D Beyond, but roll physical dice.

[@MrFuggleGuggle]

the class disparity is because - in actual D&D - vertical space and positioning is not usually considered by a lot of DMs. So something like Storm Sorcerer's 'Flight after a spell cast' bonus action doesn't see a lot of traction or value by most players. There's also all the extra dice and math that have to go into Sorcery points, and compounding damage, etc. In a video game, all that math gets done on the backend and you can see the value of your choices more easily visualized - even if limited by the imagination of the developers.

[@KasumiRINA]

On first play when starting I didn't KNOW we have jumps and verticality, I picked Paladin because it's how I played NWN, Baldur's Gate, IWD, and games that have totally-not-Paladins in Jedi and Shepard, who still play like one. Sorcerer mixes SO WELL with Pally tho.

[@darkowl9]

*cries in 4e*

[@CratthewF]

11:04 to this point, my group all shares one dndbeyond account so that only one of us has to buy everything, and then everything gets shared in every campaign any of us are in. So we’ve made 30 characters this year on just one account, as most of us are involved in multiple campaigns/oneshots. That sort of thing may account for those numbers, although this is obviously just my experience.

[@ottosalo4575]

you canenable content sharing but it requires subscription afaik

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Hopefully they don't follow Netflix's lead and crack down on this

[@O_CABBAGE]

Another thing, some people just enjoy creating characters, but don't have enough time for a campaign

[@PolarisIII]

​@BobWorldBuilder if they do there are plenty of alternatives that win the price war at free.

[@timogul]

One interesting thing about characters and classes in Baldur's Gate is "the other characters." There is a whole party of other characters available, and people pick and choose which of those characters they want on their team, and then often build their own character to complement that team. They might be less likely to choose Cleric, because they intend to have Shadowheart on their team.

[@stevewohlwend1010]

This is also a major reason why Paladin and Sorcerer are the top two. There's no sorcerer, and the Paladin is unlikely to even join most parties - she's an evil Drow.

[@CollinJarman]

I think having early access to a CHA character to be the party face is another reason. It's why I chose Sorc on my first playthrough.

[@MontyBeda]

I have seen statistics from inXile and other companies and even when the healer is crazy old man, players will still rather have him as companion than to play as healer themselves.

[@bignasty389]

@@MontyBedaYou’re acting like I wouldn’t choose a crazy old man to have on my team just by virtue of him being a crazy old man.

[@ripayanami]

Shadowheart is also the most "romanced" character in the game, and her personal quest is highly connected with her Cleric class. So for the most people Cleric slot is set till the end of the game. But also healing is not that nessesary in BG3: 0. The difficulty is not that high and you can always reload your game 1. no ambushes in camp or during short rest. And for most part of the game you can rest as many times as you want. 2. Healing bottles are easy to find and you can heal people by throwing bottles on a ground.

[@thod-thod]

In several years playing DnD with several groups, I’ve met one person who uses dndbeyond

[@lukekline9513]

Definitely the silent majority who does not use it. I personally still use my hardcover players handbook to make characters and Google docs when I DM, Google everything else I need inbetween.

[@MidlifeCrisisJoe]

In BG3 the default selection, if you just change nothing about class in the character creation menu, is a Dragonborn Sorceror if you pick the Dark Urge origin, so I guess a lot of people picking that origin (which is both meant to be geared toward an evil playthrough but also pitched as sort of a "Custom Character +" campaign since it adds more uniqueness to your create-a-character) may have felt that those were good choices (they do synergize well, to be fair, with the Dragonic Bloodline Sorceror). And Paladin is one of the few classes not represented by a Larian created companion (well, there's one, but they're hidden and basically a bonus character meant more for an evil playthrough, as you're led to kill them pretty early on if you're going traditional Chaotic Good style), so it makes a lot of sense that they'd be a popular player choice as it lets you fill in a role the others won't. The other one that doesn't have a companion character in the game is Monk, but I think most people shy away from Monks generally compared to Fighters/Paladins/Barbarians because they're more for fitting an Eastern aesthetic and more of the Forgotten Realms is definitely Western aesthetics.

[@AlexM-is6ru]

People also shy away from monk because it a very weak class with no mechanical niche. Ideally they could use their mobility to play as a skirmisher but that doesn't really exist in 5e because the way AoOs work strongly discourages any sort of hit and run tactics. Also using no weapons or armor means not finding and using cool magic weapons and armor which is usually the most exciting loot. (Yes, you can use some weapons but people planning to use weapons usually don't pick monk).

[@tntori5079]

Interesting. I think the source material makes a huge difference. Of my 5 ppl. 2 of us play BG3. One of those 2 has 3 characters. I have over 10 myself. Our DnD group however all play on paper sheets. You can (and many do) play DnD without Beyond. But no one can play BG3 without BG3. . .one has an off option the other does not. =)

[@agiliteaV]

I think people are more likely to purchase bg3 than DND beyond, but there is still the offset that someone can pirate the game.

[@INTCUWUSIUA]

Yeah, even beyond paper (pun not intended) there are a lot of ways to play 5e. Personally I only play/run 5e in Foundry VTT

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Yeah, if only there were a pen and paper version of Baldur's Gate 3 :P

[@tntori5079]

@@BobWorldBuilder got me there XD

[@claudio_wild1074]

I play dnd a lot but I've never used beyond to create a character. Pen and paper or just directly into a VTT like roll20

[@forsaken7976]

No coincidence that there are so many human fighters named Bob. They were inspired by the legendary human warrior of the same name that fought in the OGL wars.

[@Ender13YT]

Something else to say about that Data - not just that Paladin and Sorcerer don't exist in default companions - but your main character speaking to most people is a big deal. So charisma is a huge deal for a main character. Where in table top games, you might leave that roles open to someone else.

[@johndoesutobexd8110]

Neither I nor any of my 12 players, nor any of my befriended DMs use apps like DND Beyond or Roll 20. We all use pen and paper. So yup, the idea that the majority doesn't use any of these apps is quite accurate to my experiences

[@julialopes6516]

For the player data on the dnd beyond app: I use it to play with dice when I'm bored, and create characters I'm not planning on using anytime soon bc I had an idea and wanted to see how it would work with the mechanics, i usually delete those pretty quickly too. So I've created probably dozens of characters and only actually played with two!

[@fgregerfeaxcwfeffece]

I think it's about 20 to 1 for me.

[@FieldMarshall3]

Same for me kinda. Sometimes when making a new character i create like 6 to see which one i like.

[@JuicyBlueWill]

The 3:1 player to character ratio makes sense because I think I made in total like 50 DnDBeyond characters in 2023, whether it be running through different concepts to very short one-shot characters to making NPC concepts. Most people don't do this and might just make one or two but 3:1 is certainly normal.

[@conradharris8167]

I'm definitely the same way

[@TKDB13]

Yeah, when you factor in one-shots, playing in multiple campaigns (either shorter ones sequentially or different groups at the same time), PC death/retirement, or just plain fiddling around with different concepts, there are plenty of reasons to account for the 3:1 ratio of characters to players.

[@Joebobinator]

I agree. I'll make 3 of the same character concept just to compare different builds and setups only to not actually use any of them. 3:1 overall doesn't seem crazy at all.

[@shawnwolf5961]

@@TKDB13 If not more, tbh.

[@tench745]

The reveal of the corrected graph made me unreasonably happy. Thank you .

[@WolforNuva]

Something I noticed with the BG3 opening weekend class data, Paladin, sorcerer, warlock, and bard shared the top 5 spots with rogue. Notice something? Charisma. People wanted to pass those dialogue checks, this fits even with rogue who may use expertise to make up for lower charisma scores. In the 4 month version fighter and barbarian kicked warlock and bard out of the top 5, but charisma classes still dominate the top end of the scale. Kind of makes sense also with more time the people who already played charisma classes will start trying new things.

[@beancounter2185]

I believe the difference in character creation numbers may be driven by the D&D Beyond limit of 5 characters...unless you have a subscription.

[@Martin-di9pp]

I also wonder how many of the characters created in BG3 actually reached the beach. Because most of mine didn't. 😋

[@costanzafaust]

@@Martin-di9pp I have made many a character in BG3 just to make a portrait for a PC or NPC in a D&D game. I really wish they had a standalone character maker just for doing stuff like that.

[@ianfrazier9896]

Agreed. The other factor is that it’s only showing NEW characters. So if you made a character in 2022 or earlier and spent 2023 just playing with that character, your numbers didn’t contribute to the DNDBeyond counts at all. So presumably tons of longer-running campaigns aren’t represented at all. Whereas BG3 is a video game: it came out in 2023, and every single player who played it needed to create a minimum of one character.

[@Pailzor]

My thinking was a combination of accessibility and interest. Far more people are likely to pick up a video game (especially if there's a lot of hype around it) than to play D&D. And even then, people who do play D&D still might not have heard of D&D Beyond, or prefer pen & paper instead. Additionally, I'm sure there's a lot of people who bought Baldur's Gate with the idea that "this is how I get to play D&D", because they don't know anyone who plays TTRPGs, don't have the time for it, or they don't believe they have the imagination/improv skills for it.

[@arlibrarian]

Yeah, video games are more popular than tabletop games, online or not. But now I want an entire party of human fighters named Bob to try to run through a dungeon.

[@CaedenV]

The brothers Bob! Their names are Robert, Rob, Bob, Bobbie, and Robin

[@kevinbroussard8136]

Also, the long lost brother Robert (pronounced Roe-bear, because he's French)

[@Local_commentor]

​@@CaedenVRob must use a red katana named rivers of blood

[@silverjohn6037]

This my brother Bob. And this is my other brother Bob. (Old sitcom reference but then I'm an old man;)

[@Mischievous_Moth]

@@silverjohn6037 Hey, I'm 31 and I got it. lol

[@majmage]

Another factor in cleric unpopularity is the story character most likely to automatically join your party is a cleric, which you often don't want 2 of. (You can respec Shadowheart, but that requires extra time/effort, and the desire to respec, which probably most players don't have.) Personally I went for Cleric in my first coop campaign, and felt it was pretty amazing. Underwhelming heals, but stuff like spirit guardians was absolutely overpowered in some fights. Would've been interesting to present the data side-by-side more. So like * do a graph for class distribution, sorted by most popular D&DB class * for each class, have three bars: D&DB, BG3-launch, and BG3-postlaunch (color-coded, with the two BG3 bars being somewhat similar colors) * basically this would've made it really easy to do what you did briefly in the vid of flipping between launch/postlaunch BG3 to compare shifts in popularity

[@Zaniiee]

you also have people who use the app to keep track of the data sheets.. Gold.. extra items... etc. stats that change like HP... this allows for an easy to manage system while also having the ability to keep track of certain things within home games. Our group of 6 - 8 use it for this reason but wont roll on the app because we have our own dice, But we did create our characters on the app with the character sheet but don't actively use the app / website..

[@96Logan]

9:57 More importantly, in a video game you tend to want your character to do the talking. Paladin is "the talky Fighter" and Sorcerer is "the talky Wizard." You also have Shadowheart as your dedicated healer already in the story. I feel like most people wanted Shadowheart in their party for many reasons 😂

[@mARTYR2010]

this. i think shadowheart skews the cleric usage

[@shawnwolf5961]

@@mARTYR2010 I know she does for me. While I play a cleric in tabletop, I'm not interested in playing a cleric in BG3 for two reasons. 1) Shadowheart, whom is almost always my companion of choice to roll with my A team. 2) I am playing one in my tabletop game, so I want to do something different in BG3.

[@ohmygoditisspider7953]

i just think healing is a bad option for clerics. why use any heal spell when guiding bolt is that strong? like I can't really use clerics, because I just use healing potions or whatever for healing and then it's like, okay you cast spirit guardians so i guess run around in circles and blow the rest of your spell slots on guiding bolt.

[@chrisg8989]

The baulders Gate popular Classes make sense, there are no Paladin nor Sorcerer NPCs that join your party. (Well none that were originally announced) so makes sense that people wanted to play a class that wasn't already on the Roster. Also CHA is huge for dialog options. People like to "win" the conversation options they choose.

[@gareless]

And that The Dark Urge’s default class is sorcerer! Maybe that also adds to the numbers.

[@TheCFKane1982]

Minthara is a Paladin

[@maxb2244]

​@@gareless I believe every default custom character is a sorcerer by default

[@aznkane87]

​@TheCFKane1982 Yeah, but most people don't actually add her as a party companion and a lot aren't even aware that you can add her since she takes a naturally antagonist role in the story path most players would choose.

[@LecherousLizard]

​@@maxb2244 Dark Urge used to be THE custom character. Due to feedback Larian had another custom character made with Dark Urge interactions turned off, so that's probably why it defaults like that.

[@emmjaygames]

when i tell you DDB 's data presentation hurt my soul.... thank you for this breakdown. as a data nerd, i love it.

[@malcolm_in_the_middle]

Man, I started going crazy when I saw that vertical axis. I'm glad you also picked it up.

[@ramzikawa734]

5:41 oh god when you pointed out the weird data squashing that made me feel sick. Arbitrary interval jumps are already crazy, but having bigger jumps and then going back and doing a smaller one is something I’ve never heard of. Truly a “graphic design is my passion” representation.

[@CheezMonsterCrazy]

They do that intentionally. In this case it makes it look like everything is very close in popularity, instead of the truth which is that there is clear preference. You see this all the time in data released both to the public and to investors from big companies. It allows them to technically present the actual data, but manipulate how people feel about the data.

[@Haexxchen]

Man, people are really uncreative naming so many NPCs Bob. I never reuse Bob. The second one is always Bob Bobkins.

[@collinfant5146]

My group uses Kevins instead of bobs

[@mxmark89]

hopefully you have atleast a few Karens in there 😄@@collinfant5146

[@skycastrum5803]

“Bob” is my default test name. Three letters, one a repeat. I’d bet money that something along those lines has more to do with the name’s popularity than people legitimately choosing the name for anything more meaningful.

[@Yoandrys23]

Mine are Bob, Bob Robertson, Bob Bobson, Robert Bobson, and of course Mary.

[@conjumonblue6450]

Bob from Accounting. You know Bob right? Everyone knows Bob.

[@moogamooga2100]

This was really interesting, Bob! Thank you!

[@steel5315]

5:28 As someone whos taken multiple classes on research and graph making I care! I might show this to one of my professors actually if I get the chance lol

[@Aeivious]

One thing i feel that scews the data on bg3 is the companions. Why play as a cleric when you get shadow heart (one of the mor interestinf companions) so and so forth. So looking at the most popular classes and seeing paladin and sorcerer (durge influenced likley) makes a lot of sense.

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

Also why play as a cleric at all when the way BG3 is structured means you can easily do without a healer at all as long and short rests can be done almost anywhere with no penalty for doing so. Which then means the need for a healer to patch the group up rapidly is rather limited. In combat healing is still limited and you are probably better off throwing a potion than wasting a whole action and spell slot.. In 5E healers matter more as you can't just have a big fight with this group of goblins and settle down for a short rest without being interrupted by their buddies who are probably even within earshot of the fight, but certainly close enough they would expect contact every hour or so... Also I'd argue cleric have more options to actually do decent damage as well than in BG3, though BG3 does have some options there the wider range of items and subclass at a real TTRPG table gives your cleric many more options to be an effective fighter that happens to heal sometimes, when it suits them...

[@DoomsdayR3sistance]

@@foldionepapyrus3441 sorry but not really true, 5E for starters, healers are generally quiet weak in combat. the best healing is out of combat and Paladin is actually really good for that since they get a separate dedicated resource for it, Clerics generally serve more as supports with a bit of offence and defence, being relatively decent on front or backlines and same is true in BG3, if you're healing, it's probably prayer of healing, which in 5E is a 100 turn cast time. I'm pretty certain the OP is right, the reason cleric is less popular is Shadowheart, I would not be surprised if Shadowheart is the most romanced companion in the game, further too that you get her early and it's the class that people probably just don't want to main class, so go to the companion.

[@thedarkness75]

@@DoomsdayR3sistance the only problem with that is you don’t know any of that, who Shadowheart even is or that you get her early the first time you are playing through the game which is when the majority of characters are created. It’s more what Bob said and a video game thing, no one wants to play a healer. That being said you are correct shadow heart by far is the most popular companion (first playthrough until people discover Karlach) Larian released player data and she by far is the most popular companion and most romanced

[@davidtaylor142]

Especially since Shadowheart is such a popular romance choice

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

@@DoomsdayR3sistance Didn't say healers/healing in combat in 5E are better - but in 5E you can't slaughter a room of guys and settle down for a long or short rest on their corpses knowing you won't be disturbed - you want the healer to bring the team back up to fighting fitness so many times because there is no chance to rest immediately after an encounter, and you might stumble into another before you get that chance. BG3 doesn't have that problem - in effect the BG3 DM is 90% of the time going sure have a nap - I promise the NPC won't react to the fact they heard a fight, haven't seen Bob for hours etc.. Edit: and because the BG3 dm usually just lets you rest unmolested in hostile zones (and that throwing healing potions is so effective at healing multiple targets) a healer in BG3 really isn't as important to the team.

[@Chris-xc6fd]

Ok no as someone WITHOUT a strong background in data science or anything that heavily relies on statistics, the graph drove me nuts too. I wouldn't have noticed if Bob didn't take a second to point it out but now it's seared into my brain like a hot poker through the frontal lobe

[@timseguine2]

Coincidentally, a hot poker through the frontal lobe would probably make you forget about it again.

[@marcp8861]

As a member of the 'almost another Bob' club (tm) and being directly blood related to 6 Bobs. It doesn't surprise me its the most common name, I was almost expecting it. As a long time player and advocate for the Human Fighter being the #1 class and species. I am pleased.

[@daurnimator]

For what it's worth, this is the first time I've heard of DnD beyond. Somehow I've managed to play DnD for years, and consume plenty of DnD youtube content without actually hearing of it before. In our player group we use an excel sheet to track our character stats, and have a PDF of the players handbook: I don't think there's any way for us as players to be captures in metrics. I wonder how much of an anomaly we are in the player-base, or if there's some large silent+invisible minority/majority.

[@classified5790]

The classes in BG3 are slanted towards working with the known starting npc's: Rogue, Fighter, Cleric, and wizard.

[@StupidIsMyJob]

Not to mention if you're planning on picking up Karlach, some may not find much sense in being either a barbarian or monk. Monk, my boy, being so neglected even among the BG3 community, they made him baller though in the game. Though I'd bet that they're only considering the first level taken, and not multiclassing. Monk/Fighter/Rogue could be pretty busted, but I'd bet people would start by using either Fighter or Rogue to fill out their party balance in the early game.

[@DavidHarris74]

Biggest mystery is thus Druid. You don't get Halsin or Jaheira until Act 2.5. And, the Druid is so flexible. It can fill almost any role. Its unpopularity could be due to how few gamers understand the Druid and then how badly it's introduced with Halsin and Jaheira. Halsin is just a dumb bear and Jaheira is also limited in what she does until you make them companions in your party.

[@abcdefghij337]

I had so much fun as a Druid. I took Circle of the Spores and collected bodies to make into armies. No fewer than 6 allies in almost every fight in Act 3. Romanced Astarion (ya know, the dead guy) and let him take the Thay book, and that 6 turned into 10. Us made 11.

[@RialuCaos]

@@DavidHarris74 Personally I played a druid in one playthrough but missing events/dialogue due to being in animal form was unacceptable to the point where I hardly ever used animal form. I imagine that might be a deterrent for some people even playing the class.

[@cinnibarbrenneka]

​@@DavidHarris74Druid is the single worst class in literally every game that includes it with only 1 exception. All my homies hate druids.

[@goyasolidar]

One thing to consider is that many people played Baldur's Gate who are not D&D players but are just avid video gamers or play TTRPGs other than D&D.

[@raggebatman]

Without a doubt this is the reason for the large difference between the bg3 and dnd playerbase. The majority of my friends on Steam have bg3- barely a handful of them have actually played dnd, and that's not necessarily on beyond

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

@@raggebatman Have you considered that the data for DnD Beyond is what's not representative of the DnD playerbase, instead? Because that certainly seems more likely. At a fundamental level the appeal of each DnD class is the same regardless of whether it's a video game or not. The dishonest and disingenuous framing and formatting of the data for DnD Beyond may warrant a bit of suspicion on the matter.

[@TheGamingDandy]

It's also important to remember that a lot of players will create new characters in a game before even completing it one single time, where as for Tabletop, players will often stick with the same character for years.

[@Malmstrom87]

A note on the D&D Beyond app. I actively play with a large group of people divided among 4 tables, the DMs have decided that everyone must create a character on the app and join one of four campaigns, mostly to keep track of who plays and what their characters are, however, most of the group doesn't actually roll in the app, and some of the members don't even open up the app after creating the character except when leveling up. I just use it to keep track of items and spell slots etc.

[@jakubzachnik1070]

One thing might be interesting - as DM I have a lot of characters made to test things, sometimes even play characters (NPC) from a character sheet and not statblock. Effectively I have currently 89 characters made, and since I tend to erase some of them, I'm sure I've created over 200 within the last 3 years. But it doesn't mean that many people play that. So it would be interesting to see how many accounts have average amount of characters.

[@acephantom903]

Similar story here. I have 15 player characters that walk up players can use for games at the game store. I also have 1 NPC turned player shared NPC, 3 characters for myself for when I have the time to join other DM's games at the game store, and 1 character for my mother. A nice even 20 characters. I also have the PDFs saved should I need to cancel my subscription.

[@francometallo215]

Same if not worse can be said for BG3.

[@romanabanin2216]

Cleric is in the end because we have Shadowheart ❤

[@hrothgargogo]

Foundry does have a character creation tool, but we usually create the character on DnD Beyond and then migrate it to Foundry VTT, or directly link the character from DnD Beyond to Foundry, so likely Foundry entries are included

[@rknowling]

Always nice to have someone talk about the scale of a graph, and confounding variables such as whether something is free and how long it has been available. Kudos, Bob! It might be interesting to separate out classes etc by whether they are free or not, and maybe also to look at how long they have been available?

[@crazymonkey982]

Something I love to do on DnD Beyond is just hypothesize characters for fun. I also continuously update my back-up characters along with my active ones.

[@Ezullof]

Honestly this probably explains why so many characters are just called "Bob". People who don't want to think of a name yet, but want to see what options they have to make a character - and even check how the tool works.

[@Archangel144]

The first couple years of my current campaign, it was 5e and I played completely on paper. When we converted to Pathfinder last year, I sadly had to switch to digital... there's just so much more to memorize and I haven't achieved that level of proficiency with the system yet. But even so, Pathfinder is fantastic. Three action system for the win!

[@0num4]

I'm looking forward to seeing Starfinder 2e. Love me some crunchy scifi.

[@draguya8804]

My group gave up on 5e for Pathfinder 2nd Edtion with me as DM. Not gonna lie, that was the best decision ever because I'm having 1000x more fun as DM compared to DnD and its been way easier to balance combats even with all new mechanics and abilities that creatures have

[@ZiltoidDerOmniscient]

Right, I'm off to make a human fighter named Bob in Baldur's Gate III.

[@dexter5339]

I think the reason for cleric being so low down the BG3 scale is because the literal first character you find after leaving the ship is going to be a cleric as shes the only person you will find before having to make any check or go through combat. There are ways to get to other characters without combat or checks but its pretty unlikely you would miss shadow heart.

[@michelerenae9998]

I make characters a lot in Dnd Beyond that I never play, just to work out what I want to do. And the characters I do play on the app, I roll physical dice for, so that's something to consider. I'm sure there are others out there that use the app at the table, but roll their own dice.

[@LyleAshbaugh]

I do the same.

[@jandex4838]

Yeah, a lot of people I know just prefer physical dice, me included.

[@tslfrontman]

"But we don't know how many Bobs are out there..." Does that ever sound like an epic quest 😏

[@GlowSt_ck]

I was absolutely geared up to comment about wishing you had pointed out the terrible scale on the species graph and then when you started to do exactly that I was filled with joy

[@dae67]

thanks for pointing out that scale slaugther, because that's the first thing I've noticed and it was killing me...

[@davidjennings2179]

First thought is 180million players Vs 88 million enemies - either they didn't write this for people who play DnD or they didn't think about that ratio. The majority of fights (in my games at least( tend to be at least 1:1) but here we've got at least 2:1 players to monsters. Paladin and sorcerer are ones that we didn't get as companions in BG3 so maybe that's a reason for their popularity.

[@HarryFernandes15]

Its cause people dont use dnd beyond for fights much but they sure use it to help make a character i myself have use dnd beyond to make like 13 pc's not once i used it to fight a monster

[@Lycaon1765]

I mean I've made a ton of characters on DDB, some of them were NPCs! I have like 600+ characters.

[@davidjennings2179]

@@HarryFernandes15 Yeah, this is what I meant. They're advertising the fact that their encounters side isn't really used (if they're counting tokens dragged on Vs characters made).

[@madeleine61509]

I think they they might have added the monsters fought (or befriended) to the players/NPCs played. Aren't all enemies technically also characters that are not played by the players (i.e. a non-playable character, or NPC). If not, then where is the line between a monster/creature/enemy and NPC? Is it only humanoids that can be considered characters? If so, what about highly sentient non-humanoids who can communicate and even ally with the party? If players instigate a fight with an NPC, do they no longer count as an NPC and are now a monster simply because they entered combat with the PCs? If we base it on Intelligence level, then what number is the cutoff point? And if a player character somehow had an INCREDIBLY low intelligence (3-5, let's say), would they also suddenly be considered a monster rather than a character? When you think about it, it actually fully makes sense.

[@coldmoonmountain3148]

That, plus the fact that both are high charisma classes, and I suspect most people want to be the face character for their playthrough.

[@fishman649]

For the most part my group shares one account to roll characters so we can downlad them or import them into foundry. Which may explaun some of the data. Normally one person buys the contenet and shares it but thats been my experiance.

[@kensei10]

I did something like this when I was still using DDB. I had 20+ characters on there. Most were important NPCs but 6 were the tables PCs.

[@bluecarpettiles]

Love a bit of analysis. Great stuff Bob.

[@CHUCKLZLORD]

When I saw the chart and didn't notice the scale being off, I thought "huh, weird, would've expected it to be Zipfy" and then you made the chart linear and there it is, Good ol' Zipf

[@Drakoni23]

I do think that part of the Paladin being played more than the Fighter in BG3 could be the visuals of the armor in character selection. And yes, Cleric/Support tends to have a bad rep but also there's Shadowheart who is a very popular companion/romantic interest. No need to play a Cleric if you'll get one.

[@Nastara]

Lae’zel is also there as your fighter

[@SeanFranchise]

I was going to say something similar - I'd like to see the default looks for classes and races in BG3 overlaid with the data.

[@ambrosiogiovanni6952]

@@Nastara but Lae'zel is... Difficult, at first. Yes, she does mellow out, and her character does develop, but she's rough at the start, i bet some players simply ditch her.

[@Nastara]

@@ambrosiogiovanni6952 I love her 💚

[@ambrosiogiovanni6952]

@@Nastara me too, not gonna lie.

[@himesjb]

Nice analysis, Bob! I think the video game market makes it much easier to lure the casual player into the D&D orbit than more traditional -- albeit virtual TT -- modes of play like D&D Beyond (still 2D maps and verbal role-playing). A ratio of 10:1 (20 million consumers on Steam with BG3 vs. 2 million on D&DB) shows that your average consumer/player prefers reflex-based action games where the "imagining" has already been done for you (visuals are provided and you simply react), rather than the player having to pro-actively describe & verbalize & dramatize, and collaborate on an emerging Story. *Interesting corollary: the ratio of Garycon (mixed RPG bag of events) to Founders & Legends (OSR focus) is also around 10:1. I am estimating around 2000 games for Garycon and 200 for F&L, at least at my last viewing of the Schedule. Both events are held 1 week apart this year on the 50th Anniversary of D&D.

[@todo9633]

brb omw to make a male human fighter named bob

[@Ghost00sGames]

You hit on one of the most important aspect of D&DBeyond is the restricted licensing, and the ability to create and make your own. Even a DM owns a core paper product, to put things into DNDB you must have a higher license to share. This is very different from other VTTs. To answer your questions Foundry doesnt really have a character creator with licensable content. But the DM is free to create content like that to fit into their game and share it. It is one of the strengths of Foundry in for third party conflict its great.

[@braddl9442]

I hate the whole concept and practice of it. Id rather play over phone then use their product that wants to get rid of pen and paper products to Nickle and DIME the players to death with micro transaction BS>

[@FamBoren]

That "higher license" isn't that expensive though. D&D Beyond is a great way to play and manage your game. I use both, as in, I have both the legendray bundle on DDB and (I think) all the physical books and I use the digital version at times when the physical books are inconvenient to use.

[@Ghost00sGames]

And that physical book cost you a set amount, and there wasnt a discount with the digital, so you get to pay for the same content twice. You also get to pay more to share it. Online tools I have specific ones I will use, but DnD Beyond is my last choice, as it is the most expensive. Even my own homebrew costs me money to share it with my players.... Um no

[@FamBoren]

@@Ghost00sGames Different people have different economies. I don't mind paying for both. I perfectly understand that some people find it expensive, but playing D&D isn't a solo adventure. Get your group to pitch in and you'll soon find that it isn't that expensive after all.

[@ricv3157]

@@FamBoren As a person who runs more homebrew than book stuff. Foundry is so much better, why would I pay to share my own content.

[@piercenborchardt5224]

I never considered playing a Cleric in my playthroughs bc I enjoyed having Shadow heart in my team. I think things like that do effect the data.

[@ThatVia]

Bob, I’d love to show you how Foundry works! I’ve got a world set up with a really cool interactive landing page, and a sample/testing world more than able to show off its features.

[@ThatVia]

Specifically also how the saving system works in reference to data trackability

[@jonlueckenotte1673]

one thing i think to note about the BG3 data is you start with 3 pre mades that you dont initally have class control over. as thus could explain why some did not create a cleric as the "healer" was already done.

[@icarian553]

One thing to consider with BG3 class stats is what classes your party members have? First party member you get, is a cleric so that could explain why cleric is the least popular.

[@TheCFKane1982]

Technically, the first Party Member is Lae'zel

[@XenoByte]

8:00 Yeah Foundry is basically like Roll20 but with more stuff and customisation, seperate tabs for character sheets, stuff like that.

[@leonfire99]

Yeah, I just look at it as better roll20 with a one time payment instead of subscription.

[@sirteddyIII]

regarding the more characters than roles, my in-person groups use dnd beyond for our sheets but we like rolling physical dice. Maybe this has something to do with these stats?

[@Logiwonk]

Makes me want to run a campaign where all the players, all the NPCs, are all fighters named Bob.

[@jamesyoung7400]

They are doing some data manipulation on the 2d map stats. This data most likely includes each map load, so if a map has 2 NPCs and 4 players is loaded up 3 times while a DM is testing stuff and 1 time for play that means 24 players and NPCs were played.

[@dimesonhiseyes9134]

Yea what the graph shows is that most people are not paying for the other races. I know that once I found out that I was going to have to pay to even be able to use homebrew or custom characters I completely stopped using DnD beyond. I started using 5e companion instead.

[@davesunhammer4218]

THIS!! Pay to unlock races, etc, that are free in the book. Wizz went greedy micro-transaction at a bad time and will suffer for it.

[@dimesonhiseyes9134]

@@davesunhammer4218 nah man, you won't suffer for it because you don't need them. There is nothing that they offer that you can't find elsewhere and usually it's a better alternative anyways.

[@ClicheSk8r]

Just on the "character's created" stat, I made several characters on my own as templates for newbie players (DM here) so that could skew numbers if other DM's are doing the same.

[@ms4eji0bek]

Do the BG3 stats take into account accounts that opted out of data sharing? Or do these accounts still share data?

[@Splizacular]

No one can stand against the supreme might of the Bobs! 💪🏽

[@spacerx]

Love data discussions. This is one of my favorite videos in a long time.

[@mehlichi3471]

About the 6m characters created, I feel like it could be people trying out concepts and also creating a character in dnd beyond but playing irl. Which means that they would create a PC but won't use digital dice. At least my group have both analog and digital character sheets on roll20 but we usually meet irl and use irl dices

[@shirotaiyo4705]

I have Dmed in tons of Games over the past year and a good thing to keep in mind is the content sharing.

[@juanojeda9060]

Great video! As someone who creates characters in D&D Beyond just for fun, to sketch out an idea that will never get played in a campaign, or to help my players with their stats or choices (as a forever DM), I have a couple points: 1. It's me. I'm spamming all these characters. 9:17 2. If there are lots of people like me who just love character creation, this is even more of a vast comparison to make to BG3, where my assumption is that it's not likely that people do this (it's not as much of a throwaway act to make a character there).

[@BlueFrenzy]

Baldur's gate 3 did things very well. It`s also interesting to see how BG3 took decisions in direct opposition to what onednd did. Like moving Paladin's oath to level 1 while onednd moved all subclasses to level 3.

[@quakerdevil08]

Moving subclasses to level 3 was necessary to help balance the game via one or two level multiclass dips which influence the power of an individual character.

[@BlueFrenzy]

@@quakerdevil08 Everything influences the power of an individual character. Including teamwork. Even pathfinder 2 have subclasses at 1st level and that doesn't pose a problem for the balance. BG3 improved on multiclassing and earlier subclasses and still didn't pose a problem. It's simple and plain lack of will. It can be done, yet, they prefer to sweep the problems under the rug while still charging you the same money for the books. In the end, BG3 will be more famous and more played than oned&d despite having only one campaing.

[@BlueFrenzy]

@@quakerdevil08 Everything influences the power of an individual character in basically every game ever. Including teamwork. Even pathfinder 2 have subclasses at 1st level and that doesn't pose a problem for the balance. BG3 improved on multiclassing and earlier subclasses and still didn't pose a problem. It's simple and plain lack of will. It can be done, yet, they prefer to sweep the problems under the rug while still charging you the same money for the books. In the end, BG3 will be more famous and more played than oned&d despite having only one campaing.

[@jamesvonderhaar2553]

The BG3 classes can be explained by the fact that every main character wants to be a CHA class, or at least be decent at speech in some other way. Bard is low but is the highest support class in the game, Paladin is the most popular fighter, sorcerer is the most popular spell caster, etc.

[@1000Tomatoes]

Since the custom player in bg3 is the one doing the most of the talking it makes sense that most people would choose a charisma class. And since most of the time the player character is picking stuff up it makes sense for it to be a high str class for carrying capacity.

[@TheSooperGoose]

I just want to say Foundry VTT indeed has a character creator* with an added module. In fact, the built-in module support for creators is one of the best parts of Foundry. It's a one time payment for almost unlimited functionality* some mods are locked behind a Patreon subscription. I think it's worth every dollar, AND they just officially partnered with Wizards of the Coast, similar to Roll 20.

[@grandsome1]

You can easily turn Foundry VTT into a quasi game engine with modules it's insane.

[@ANDELE3025]

When Foundry stops cucking existing games every other update requiring you to backup after every session AND actually gives a on the fly/in game system mod access with documentation, it might be worth it, till then even a google docs file is better unless the table really wants to do AL style sanitized play.

[@Shadowsword12]

To be fair, I made literally 100 characters on DnD beyond last year lol. So I believe that last stat.

[@remy2718]

Re: Foundry There's an add-on that allows you to straight up import your character sheet from DDB, but it's also possible to create your own character in Foundry. You have access to the base classes, but only one of the subclasses (I think?), so you'd have to homebrew anything else. Depending on the mechanic you need, it can be quite intuitive but others take a while to figure out. So while it is technically possible to create characteres in Foundry, creating them on DDB and importing them to Foundry is typically more efficient. I can't be arsed to homebrew an artificer, so my player gets an analogue sheet and her Foundry token will just have the info we need for combat (AC, HP, resistance and the like)

[@peterfabell154]

Seeing D&D constantly bickering with wild success stories using D&D ought to be made into a TV soap opera.

[@SkittleBombs]

We all know you have a script creating human fighters named bob.

[@themightypen1530]

Why are we all up so early?

[@matthewburton6360]

I'm at work. dunno bout you. lol

[@AJarOfYams]

It's 2 PM here, wdym "we all"?

[@rbn0205]

It's afternoon for me (in Europe)

[@Lycaon1765]

I dunno, happened to wake up early today.

[@timothymason7008]

Because it’s BOB!

[@AvangionQ]

Makes me wish Larian Studios released a BG3 Players Handbook, including all character options and rules options in the base game (subclasses, feats, magic items, etc) 📘

[@sevengilbert3989]

My favorite part was when his cam kept covering the graph making it literally unreadable because of the lack of consistent scale XD

[@misomiso8228]

6:11 that graph is amazing!

[@ThePhoenixSlayer]

I definitely agree with you on the silent analogue majority. In my play group of 6 + DM only 1 uses DnD Beyond. It is also very important to remember that BG3 is a video game. Popular games regularly hit the numbers that you read out there. I bet a lot of people who played BG3 probably don't even know it's based on DnD. With video games, the amount of sales also slowly dries up, and the amount of players decreases as people finish the game. With DnD, once a campaign is done, you can always come back for an entirely new experience.

[@elmunus1]

I use dnd beyond character creators, and I made like 25 characters in 2023 for various oneshots, and for premade characters for my players to play. They all made their backups too, and some of their backups got brought in, so I'm not surprised at the average amount of characters created via the dnd beyond app.

[@larkermouse]

I feel like that 90k line in the Classes graph at 8:32 is just put there to make Artificers look less popular. And like, why? They're already last.

[@markdalyre]

I think a thing to remember comparing the 31 mil BG3 characters made to the 3 dndb characters is that BG3 came out 6 months ago while 5e has been around for a decade. There were people who were involved in multiple long-standing campaigns who made zero new characters last year. Meanwhile I personally made 4 different BG3 characters, but only played 2 of them.

[@cavernsofdarkness]

Exactly! I use Dnd beyond every week to pull up my character sheet, but I made that character years ago. I also don't roll digital dice. So, I wouldn't be counted in either of the categories that determine how many people are using the site, but I'm still an active user.

[@aprilzackary]

That charity thing is just a way for the corporation to do tax write-offs. Don't ever do charity through a profit-driven corporation, give directly to charitable organizations.

[@CaptainXJ]

Right. I'm so tired of million dollar corporations pan handling. I'm looking at you grocery stores.

[@0num4]

Or if you can't afford to give money directly, volunteer to help out! There are few better feelings than helping out others for the sake of it.

[@aprilzackary]

​@@0num4That's probably even better than money!

[@abcdefghij337]

I think part of the statistics of “more characters” is that BG3 has so much re-playability and the medium allows for solitude. Last year I made 6 characters, scrapped 4, and only finished 1 story. But with my dnd group, we can only meet once or twice a month and I’ve used the same character for the last 3 years.

[@PaulGaither]

Bob, have you seen DorkTown's "The Bob Emergency" by John Bois? If not, you must. You will love it.

[@DaveThaumavore]

The company can’t stop lying and deceiving. Even with a simple use graph they have to play all kinds of shenanigans. And the “and NPCs” bit is so characteristically disingenuous. They might as well have just counted “pixels moved.” Thanks for your analysis, Bob.

[@TerrasScourge]

Dnd beyond doesn’t indicate the popularity of DND as a whole though.

[@blamsw3783]

A note on the BG3 data: they didn’t release the full character creator till launch so that first week all the dnd nerds were rolling character after character exploring the options while waiting for the weekend to play with their friends. At least I knew several. And the paladin being top class I think was split between larian doing a great job marketing the oathbreaker and fitting it inside the game in an RP way, and there being many build guides recommending the paladin/lightning domain cleric for the thunderous smite bug.

[@jlastre]

I’m also a data scientist with an MS in statistics and in the twilight of my career. I sort of wonder if these graphs were created by one of my former bosses with no knowledge of data visualization who is trying to get back at Turfte.