What are most and least played races?

[huginn]

I am curious as to what races are most ad least played. I did see data about this but was a couple of years old and just trying to find something more up to date

[animorte]

You might be interested in taking some information from this thread here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?654471-Crowdsourcing-most-played-classes-races) though I wouldn't recommend commenting in it. (I think it's in Necro territory now.)

It's got a lot of listings from characters that many of us here have played as/with/DM'd for. Going through that and counting would likely save us all a fair amount of time.

[Kane0]

Does this help?

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?654915-Quick-poll

[da newt]

Google might be the best place for answers to this sort of question. For example:


https://www.belloflostsouls.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/538dndchart.jpg

[Psyren]

Google might be the best place for answers to this sort of question. For example:


https://www.belloflostsouls.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/538dndchart.jpg

I'd love it if they released an updated version of this chart post-MPMM, or better yet post-2024 when the half-X are no longer discrete entries.

[Dork_Forge]

I'd love it if they released an updated version of this chart post-MPMM, or better yet post-2024 when the half-X are no longer discrete entries.

From experience that'd probably depend on traffic to that article, if they perceive its popular enough to warrant updating they may do so.

[Psyren]

From experience that'd probably depend on traffic to that article, if they perceive its popular enough to warrant updating they may do so.

It also probably depends on WotC releasing the data; back in 2017, DDB was still owned by Fandom.

[huginn]

Google might be the best place for answers to this sort of question. For example:


https://www.belloflostsouls.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/538dndchart.jpg

I have seen the link you posted. It is old and I am trying to find something newer

[Yakmala]

I can only speak to my personal experience with 5e at local game shops, conventions and home games.

Top 5 Most Played Races:


Variant Human / Custom Lineage: Everyone loves that extra feat.
Half Elf: +2/+1/+1 attributes, two extra skills or a cantrip, the elf fey racials and plenty of good lore background ideas. What's not to like?
Mountain Dwarf: +2/+2 attributes, wear heavy armor without having to invest in strength, weapons skills and more. Hill Dwarf with their bonus HP are not far behind.
Tiefling: Lots of variety and appeals to edge lords and storytellers alike. You can also get a surprising number of resistances with the right class and racial feats.
Halfling: No one likes rolling crit fails.



Top 5 Least Played Races: (I've left off Eberron, Spelljammer, Domain of Dread and MtG races, as those settings tend to be less common than stock FR 5e)


Minotaur: Fairly new to 5e, race abilities disappointingly weak, not enough in-game lore on how to play them.
Kenku: The mimic ability in place of speach sounds fun in theory. In practice, it's a pain in the a** for everyone at the table.
Orc: While Orcs have gotten better via MotM, most players looking for the Orc experience still pick Half Orc.
Aarakocra: Used to be banned from AL play and is also banned from a lot of homebrew play. Plus there are plenty of other, cooler ways to get flight.
Hobgoblin: Both the old and new versions have some cool class features, but I see way more players choosing Goblin or Bugbear if they want to play as a Goblinoid race.



My Personal Favorite Top 5:

Variant Human / Custom Lineage: Having a starting feat allows you to have your character concept come on line much faster.
Half Elf: Beyond the great attributes and abilities, they are easy and flexible to roleplay.
Goblins: They're just fun to play! And Nimble Escape is fantastic, especially for casters!
Kobolds: I love the 5e interpretation of Kobolds, believing themselves to be tiny dragons. Both the old and new versions have fun abilities and they are a blast to roleplay!
Goliath: I don't know why this race has always clicked with me, but I really enjoy them. And I'm usually the only one at the table with one. Stone's Endurance was already good and has gotten even better in MotM, leading to some surprsingly good Goliath caster builds.

[animorte]

I'm only listing a few and not mentioning things from other source books because just about everything has been tried at least once at this point, and the additional books aren't often taken advantage of.

Most played:
Half-Elf (For some reason my players are obsessed and this takes it by a large margin.)
Human (Variant almost every time.)
Gnome (My wife loves them.)

Least played:
Tiefling (I think I've seen one in a one-shot.)
Dwarf (Just me a couple times.)
Plenty things from other books, most only once each.

I'm the only person that ever plays Halfling, but it's my favorite, so I've played it quite a few times (including each subrace).

[Samayu]

There are two ways to answer the question. One is by sheer volume, as answered above.

The other requires context. Like all PHB races would generally be the most popular, and then they trail off from there, mostly measured against how long ago they were published. I mean, I've never heard anybody in my group even mention a Leonine. But are bugbears more popular than gnomes? Or are they more popular than you'd expect based on them not being published in the PHB?