To avoid speculation, I've manually scrapped Steam statistics, let's look at some tables.

- "ratio" is positive reviews divided by negative

Sorted by the ratio:

Code
╭────┬──────────────────────────┬──────┬─────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬───────╮
│  # │          title           │ year │ ruleset │ positive │ negative │ combined │ ratio │
├────┼──────────────────────────┼──────┼─────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼───────┤
│  0 │ Divinity Original Sin 2  │ 2017 │ nondnd  │   158600 │     6600 │   165200 │ 24.03 │
│  1 │ XCOM                     │ 2012 │ nondnd  │    49100 │     2900 │    52000 │ 16.93 │
│  2 │ Fallout 2                │ 1998 │ nondnd  │    11300 │      700 │    12000 │ 16.14 │
│  3 │ Fallout                  │ 1997 │ nondnd  │    15500 │     1000 │    16500 │ 15.50 │
│  4 │ Icewind Dale             │ 2000 │ dnd     │     2500 │      200 │     2700 │ 12.50 │
│  5 │ Baldur's Gate            │ 1998 │ dnd     │    12300 │     1100 │    13400 │ 11.18 │
│  6 │ Baldur's Gate 2          │ 2000 │ dnd     │     7500 │      700 │     8200 │ 10.71 │
│  7 │ Mutant Year Zero         │ 2018 │ nondnd  │    17000 │     1700 │    18700 │    10 │
│  8 │ Divinity Original Sin    │ 2015 │ nondnd  │    21600 │     2400 │    24000 │     9 │
│  9 │ Dragon Age Origins       │ 2010 │ nondnd  │    18600 │     2100 │    20700 │  8.86 │
│ 10 │ Shadowrun: Dragonfall    │ 2014 │ nondnd  │     5200 │      600 │     5800 │  8.67 │
│ 11 │ Neverwinter Nights       │ 2002 │ dnd     │     6300 │      750 │     7050 │  8.40 │
│ 12 │ Baldur's Gate 3 ea       │ 2020 │ dnd     │    59200 │     7400 │    66600 │     8 │
│ 13 │ Shadowrun: Hong Kong     │ 2015 │ nondnd  │     3700 │      600 │     4300 │  6.17 │
│ 14 │ Pathfinder: Wotr         │ 2021 │ dnd     │    23600 │     4300 │    27900 │  5.49 │
│ 15 │ Wasteland 3              │ 2020 │ nondnd  │    15100 │     2800 │    17900 │  5.39 │
│ 16 │ XCOM 2                   │ 2016 │ nondnd  │    74600 │    14100 │    88700 │  5.29 │
│ 17 │ Wasteland 2              │ 2014 │ nondnd  │     6500 │     1400 │     7900 │  4.64 │
│ 18 │ Pathfinder: Kingmaker    │ 2018 │ dnd     │    23700 │     6600 │    30300 │  3.59 │
│ 19 │ Jagged Alliance 2        │ 2004 │ nondnd  │     1100 │      340 │     1440 │  3.24 │
│ 20 │ Gears Tactics            │ 2020 │ nondnd  │     4800 │     1600 │     6400 │     3 │
╰────┴──────────────────────────┴──────┴─────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴───────╯

Sorted by amount of reviews, i.e. roughly sales or game interest in general:

Code
╭────┬──────────────────────────┬──────┬─────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬───────╮
│  # │          title           │ year │ ruleset │ positive │ negative │ combined │ ratio │
├────┼──────────────────────────┼──────┼─────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼───────┤
│  0 │ Divinity Original Sin 2  │ 2017 │ nondnd  │   158600 │     6600 │   165200 │ 24.03 │
│  1 │ XCOM 2                   │ 2016 │ nondnd  │    74600 │    14100 │    88700 │  5.29 │
│  2 │ Baldur's Gate 3 ea       │ 2020 │ dnd     │    59200 │     7400 │    66600 │     8 │
│  3 │ XCOM                     │ 2012 │ nondnd  │    49100 │     2900 │    52000 │ 16.93 │
│  4 │ Pathfinder: Kingmaker    │ 2018 │ dnd     │    23700 │     6600 │    30300 │  3.59 │
│  5 │ Pathfinder: Wotr         │ 2021 │ dnd     │    23600 │     4300 │    27900 │  5.49 │
│  6 │ Divinity Original Sin    │ 2015 │ nondnd  │    21600 │     2400 │    24000 │     9 │
│  7 │ Dragon Age Origins       │ 2010 │ nondnd  │    18600 │     2100 │    20700 │  8.86 │
│  8 │ Mutant Year Zero         │ 2018 │ nondnd  │    17000 │     1700 │    18700 │    10 │
│  9 │ Wasteland 3              │ 2020 │ nondnd  │    15100 │     2800 │    17900 │  5.39 │
│ 10 │ Fallout                  │ 1997 │ nondnd  │    15500 │     1000 │    16500 │ 15.50 │
│ 11 │ Baldur's Gate            │ 1998 │ dnd     │    12300 │     1100 │    13400 │ 11.18 │
│ 12 │ Fallout 2                │ 1998 │ nondnd  │    11300 │      700 │    12000 │ 16.14 │
│ 13 │ Baldur's Gate 2          │ 2000 │ dnd     │     7500 │      700 │     8200 │ 10.71 │
│ 14 │ Wasteland 2              │ 2014 │ nondnd  │     6500 │     1400 │     7900 │  4.64 │
│ 15 │ Neverwinter Nights       │ 2002 │ dnd     │     6300 │      750 │     7050 │  8.40 │
│ 16 │ Gears Tactics            │ 2020 │ nondnd  │     4800 │     1600 │     6400 │     3 │
│ 17 │ Shadowrun: Dragonfall    │ 2014 │ nondnd  │     5200 │      600 │     5800 │  8.67 │
│ 18 │ Shadowrun: Hong Kong     │ 2015 │ nondnd  │     3700 │      600 │     4300 │  6.17 │
│ 19 │ Icewind Dale             │ 2000 │ dnd     │     2500 │      200 │     2700 │ 12.50 │
│ 20 │ Jagged Alliance 2        │ 2004 │ nondnd  │     1100 │      340 │     1440 │  3.24 │
╰────┴──────────────────────────┴──────┴─────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴───────╯

As you can see, DnD games are not "by far" more liked or more popular. They aren't even in the top. And the only modern one - Pathfinder - doesn't even get into the top half of the list.

If you know more pure(-ish) dnd games, throw the titles at me, I'll add to the list. Maybe I'm just missing a critical title or two I'm not aware of. Nevertheless, my preliminary conclusion is that D&D fans tend to live in a bubble and an echo chamber, with all the bias that brings. Including, by the way, people working at Larian Studios - they are clearly D&D fans, and I think they got carried away, or maybe it was a conscious gamble.

Edit: added BG3 early access, corrected for original release years

Last edited by Ethreix; 22/07/23 11:33 PM.