67% Don't Know This Game - The Demographics of Hobby Board Gamers

I was doing some research for a future article, and happened upon some interesting statistics from a 2020 survey of 1,226 US adults. The survey broadly examines perception of luck vs skill in games, but it has plenty of other interesting tidbits, such as enjoyment of games broadly, and admitted prevalence of cheating.

In the survey they ask about perception of luck versus skill in a number of games, with an option for “I am not familiar with this game”. Catan - which is probably the most ubiquitous hobby board games - was included in the survey.

67% of adults are unfamiliar with Catan.

I think this gives us some good insights into the size of the hobby board gaming space relative to non-hobby board games. It can also give us some interesting insights into baseline demographics of potential hobby gamers, and shed some light on the future of the hobby.

Let’s take a closer look…

Younger Generations More Likely to Know Catan

*Note CAH follows similar generational patterns as Catan*

I think this is a really good sign.

Of course, it isn’t a perfect predictor of potential growth in the hobby, as older generations may be more likely to have familiarity with games from earlier decades like Stratego (1942), Risk (1957) or Boggle (1972). So, an alternative takeaway is that games can wax and wane in popularity.

That said, I am encouraged that more young people are familiar with Catan as I believe that increases the likelihood of them introducing future generations to the hobby.

Parental Status

A corollary to the generational data is that parents of younger children – who are more likely to be Gen Z, Millennials, or Gen X – are more likely to be familiar with Catan. Aside from age-based correlations, there doesn’t seem to be much higher of a prevalence of familiarity based on parental status.

Income & Education

The data around income and education is a little messy. Lower education levels (no college) are least likely to be familiar with Catan, but some college education, through post grad educations are all equally as likely.

With regards to income, there isn’t enough divergence to draw strong results. What’s interesting though, is that people who did not disclose their income (166 people) were least likely to be familiar with Catan.