Roll20 just released their Orr Group Industry Report for Q3 2019 and it looks like Call of Cthulhu’s popularity continues to grow. According to the report, 13% of Roll20 users currently play the Call of Cthulhu (CoC) system. CoC supplanted the spot that Pathfinder previously used to have, becoming the second most popular role-playing game second only to D&D 5e. It remains to be seen how long it will hold onto that spot, but that’s still an impressive feat.
This is cool to see for me since CoC is a personal favorite and one of the systems that I run most often. For those who aren’t familiar with it, Call of Cthulhu is an RPG system based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos in general, and on Lovecraft’s short story of the same name in particular.
Call of Cthulhu has come a long way since it was first released in 1981 by Chaosium. The whole Cthulhu mythos’s place in popular culture, in fact, has come a very long way since it was first dreamed up in Lovecraft’s feverish imagination in 1926 via the short story, “The Call of Cthulhu.” It’s quite remarkable, when you really think about it, that the Cthulhu mythos has come to be as popular as it has, inspiring more than a few books, movies, games (both video and tabletop), and even music.
For those who’ve never played CoC, I very much recommended it, especially if you are even just a casual fan of the horror genre or of H.P. Lovecraft. Or if you are a D&D player looking to try something different, CoC would be a logical choice. Ben Riggs of Geek & Sundry has called it the best RPG of all time, and while whether it’s truly “best” or not can be contested, it is certainly an excellent game. 13% of Roll20 users would likely agree. 🙂