"How many Miniature Wargamers are there?" Topic

There's no way to know for sure, but what is your guess on how many people in the world play wargames on tabletops with rulers and dice and miniature figures? I'm not talking board games or card games or computer games. Actual figures on landscaped tabletops.

>1,000,000
500,000-1,000,000
250,000-500,000
100,000-250,000
50,000-100,000
<50,000

My guess is well over a million!

A billion. They just don't know it yet. :)

Dan

My guess would be close on 500,000 active--that is, not counting people with a dusty box in the attic, but only those who bought, painted or played with ministures in the past year.
Reasoning. Takes a town of about 200,000 to support a game shop with a full-time owner-operator in the US. Figure if it takes about 100 people in attendance to support a full-time minister, the situation is similar here. So one American in 2,000, or about 160,000. The UK end of the hobby is about the same size, despite the smaller population, so more or less another 160,000. Canada, Australia and New Zealand seem to have a similar enthusiasm but only about 2/3 of the population combined, so maybe 100,000 to 120,000. The rest of the worldmight be more or less the same, largely concentrated in Europe, with a lot of the unusual TMP member locations like Afghanistan and Singapore largely being soldiers, diplomats or businessmen deployed from the core regions.

If I'm missing anything, I may have low-balled the mainland Euro contingent, is my guess. A German not comfortable in English and playing in flats wouldn't show up most of the places I'm looking.

I would be interested in anyone else's reasoning. We can all pick numbers out of a hat.

I agree with Roberts assessment. Around 500,000 world-wide. It is estimated that 20m people have played D&D but you can do that round the kitchen table and does not even need figures.

I've gone with 1-2 per 10,000 population (in the US). But they can come in waves. I've known a couple others in my town, but recently we have started a club that has @ 12 "semi-regulars". Last meeting had 10. Where they have been hiding for the last 12 years? not sure. But things like Dust and X-wing have brought a few into the fold.

I would say that Mr. Piepenbrink's estimate might be on the low side, as so much can depend on the influence of one or two people spreading the "contagion" to others. I once lived in a rural town of less than 20,000 people which nevertheless had a hobby shop heavily oriented towards miniatures gaming and an active group of wargamers which could turn out a dozen or so for a Napoleonics battle. There were others more geared to naval wargaming, sci-fi, and fantasy. However, much of that came down to the enthusiasm of the shop owner, and declined after his premature death from cancer.

One. The rest were just Photoshopped in.

Wow, a lot of optimists here! :) I would put the figures much, much lower.

About 10 in my club.

?

Well, I counted all you guys and multipied by some factor I pulled out of the air and came up with a very scientific number of 4,354.5. Don't ask about the half.
John

@huron725,

Well, your number is probably no less accurate than a lot of "official" statistics that get reported in newspapers, etc. By the way, I think your .5 must be my half-brother. Sorry, couldn't resist.