Critical RoleIt’s no secret that Dungeons & Dragons‘ popularity is at an all-time high, but while some of that success is owed to Stranger Things, most of it, according to Critical Role’s Taliesin Jaffe, is down to livestreaming.
When Critical Role released its first episode back in 2015, Dungeons & Dragons’ had little mainstream appeal. It wasn’t until 2016 that fans got a glimpse of the tabletop game in Stranger Things that it began to fully take off in pop culture.
However, this was only half the story, as Critical Role began quickly gaining viewership during its first campaign. One member, Taliesin Jaffe, believes this success, and the rising popularity of D&D, is largely thanks to one key feature, livestreaming.
Taliesin Jaffe believes Twitch aided D&D success
Speaking to Dexerto’s Fall Damage, Critical Role member Taliesin Jaffe explored the “insular” nature of TTRPGs, revealing its inability to expand outside of the room in which it’s played: “If you try and take this story out of that room, it’s just gonna deflate like a dream, attempting to explain the best dream you’ve ever had to a friend.”
However, he then explained that “Thanks to Twitch, suddenly one of these things could be lifted up out of the bottom of the ocean to be seen in daylight,” therefore allowing Dungeons & Dragons to be the huge success it has become.”
“It really hadn’t occurred to me that it would really connect to a lot of people” added Jaffe, highlighting the emotional nature of the TTRPG and how livestreaming helped push the game into popularity.
Thanks to Twitch and livestreaming, those personal adventures can now be broadcast to the world, allowing any campaign to reach millions of eyes rather than being confined to four walls. After all, just ten years later, D&D is one of the most popular games out there, with plenty of people livestreaming their games every day.
