PBBG Player Survey 2024 Results - Part 1
The PBBG Player Survey 2024 has ended and the results are being tallied up! The survey was open for approximately 30 days and the players surveyed were primarily solicited via web game directories and the #misc-plugs channel in the PBBG discord server. The respondent count this year has been fairly small compared to previous years, with only 53 responses, however the results still give plentiful insights into the PBBG landscape.
This is part one of the results with a very surface level overview of some of the easily digestible responses, with part two (and three!?) coming with more insights at a later date.
As you can see below, the majority of respondents (just over 60%) have been around PBBGs and playing them for well over a decade. On top of that, almost 40% of respondents are currently only playing a single PBBG, while a small number of the others are equally either playing no games at the moment or playing between 5 and 7 games.
| Duration | Player Count |
|---|---|
| < 5 years | 22.7% |
| 5 - 10 years | 17.0% |
| > 10 years | 60.4% |
Note
Survey asked for < 1 year, 1 - 2 years, and 2 - 5 years separately. These were rolled into one < 5 years item due to low responses on the items lesser than 2 years.
| Number of PBBGs | Player Count |
|---|---|
| None | 9.4% |
| One | 39.6% |
| Two | 18.9% |
| 3 - 4 | 22.6% |
| 5 - 7 | 9.4% |
Note
Survey had the choice of > 7 which was not selected by any respondents and not included above as a result.
Unsurprisingly, most people want to interact with the games they're playing at least a couple of times day, with less than 20% of respondents saying their ideal interaction frequency is once a day or one or twice a week.
| Interaction Frequency | Player Count |
|---|---|
| Multiple times per hour | 13.2% |
| About once per hour | 9.5% |
| Every few hours | 17.0% |
| 2 - 3 times per day | 43.4% |
| Once per day | 13.2% |
| Once or twice per week | 3.8% |
With most of the players that responded to our survey having played PBBGs for 10 or more years, it's no surprise that the majority of these players are not a fan of games that subject to resets.
| Reset Frequency | Player Count |
|---|---|
| Never | 58.5% |
| Every few years | 7.5% |
| Yearly | 11.3% |
| Twice per year | 11.3% |
| Quarterly | 5.7% |
| Monthly | 5.7% |
It will likely come as no surprise to many of you, but the extremes of no graphics on one side and graphics-only on the other aren't very popular among PBBG players, with an overwhelming majority of players preferring to either play games with an even balance of graphics and text or mostly text and no graphics.
If you're looking to start a PBBG, then fortunately for you, starting out with mostly text and some graphics is an easy way to start building and getting an audience without having to break the bank with all your graphics up front and there will be an audience that is not only happy with the minimal graphics, but is actively seeking it!
| Graphicality | Player Count |
|---|---|
| Fully graphical, text only for labels | 1.9% |
| Mostly graphical, some descriptive text | 13.2% |
| An even blend of text and graphics | 41.5% |
| Mostly text, some graphics | 37.7% |
| Purely text, no graphics | 5.7% |
And for the final piece of part one of the survey results is to look at the breakdown of age of our respondents. We see more than half of these players being 30 - 40 year olds, with the next largest group being 21 - 30 year olds.
There were no respondents that chose the 15 - 18 years old option which may at a surface level seem like young adults do not play PBBGs, however, I believe it is more likely to be the case that they're just significantly less likely to participate in a survey about games.
| Player Age | Player Count |
|---|---|
| 18 - 21 years old | 3.8% |
| 21 - 30 years old | 20.8% |
| 30 - 40 years old | 64.2% |
| 40 - 50 years old | 5.7% |
| > 50 years old | 4.7% |
Note
Survey gave choices for 50 - 60 years old and > 60 years old separately. These were rolled into one > 50 years old item due to low responses on the items over 50 years. Additionally the 15 - 18 years old option has been omitted as no respondents selected this choice.
And that's a wrap for part one! Stay tuned with us at Make It Big In Games for part two of the results, where we'll explore the data further and dig out some interesting insights.
September 2024 Update: part two of this series is now available
First published August 19, 2024 and last updated at September 6, 2024
Tags: PBBG , PBBG Surveys