We’re looking at the most popular classes according to the latest
data and seeing how your favorites stack up. But one class stands
a cut above the rest.

It’s time once again to look at the latest data released from D&D
Beyond, which gathers stats from more than 30 million different
characters to give you a snapshot of what the community is like. While
it’s not the only player population, it’s still a significant enough
sample size to give you insight into what the community is doing and
what the big trends are. Today we’re taking a look at what the most
popular classes are, with some newly updated data on single-classed
characters.

While slightly more than half of the playerbase typically multiclasses,
there’s still a sizable chunk that don’t. Especially if you’re just
starting off. And from the data, which we’ll get to in a second, we
can learn a ton of interesting things–not only do we now the most
popular class, we get a look at how traditional party composition has
shifted. But you don’t have to take my word for it, look at the
numbers:

https://www.belloflostsouls.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/dnd-beyond-popular-single-class.jpg

Let’s start with the most obvious stuff. Fighters are the most popular
class in all of D&D, and Champion Fighters are the most popular
Fighter. By a lot. This is something that D&D has said is true
internally, it’s something that D&D Beyond has correlated, and it
remains true–for single classed characters. If you take multiclassing
into account, then it’s Warlocks for days (but that’s because
Warlock/Fighter is a popular combo). We’ll compare the two another
time. But for now, let’s look at another interesting trend. Warlocks
are more popular than both Wizards and Sorcerers, so they’re sort of
stepping into that Mage role. Looking at the top classes, it looks
like your average (single-classed) adventuring party is Fighter, Rogue, Warlock, and then either Cleric, Barbarian, or Wizard. This is a change
from a year ago, when Wizards and Sorcerers were competing for popular positions in parties.

https://www.belloflostsouls.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/dnd-beyond-party-composition.jpg

The other thing worth looking at is which subclasses are getting the
most play here. Many of these aren’t surprising, in fact if you look
at all the single-classed characters, the subclass option that’s
included in the SRD is the most common, likely because more people
play D&D than own the PHB on D&D Beyond. But looking at the
distribution you see just how popular that gets. For comparison’s sake,
here’s last year’s subclass data (w/o multiclass):

https://www.belloflostsouls.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/top-subclass-dnd-beyond.jpg

And here’s this year’s data again: https://www.belloflostsouls.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/dnd-beyond-popular-single-class.jpg

Now, it’s worth noting that one has all player options unlocked, and
this compares all player data in general, but even with free-only
classes, you still see some interesting emerging subclasses. Clerics
have seen Tempest overtake the Forge Domain, meanwhile Circle of
Shepherd Druids are quickly rising in popularity. Fighters look pretty
much as they always have, with the Champion Fighter by far and away
the most popular character/class combo. I’m glad to see the Way of the
Drunken Master showing up for Monks.

The biggest takeaway is that, as the new options trickle out, people
are using them, and while there’s no competing with free, the basic
picture of many of the classes is slowly shifting. It’ll be interesting
to see where we are a year from now, when whatever player option book
is coming has released.


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