Last week on the Stonemaier Games monthly e-newsletter (subscribe here), I shared a demographic survey with our subscribers. I’ve done this a few years in a row now, with the intent being to learn more about our followers so we can better serve you in the future. I try to focus on questions with actionable results.

As usual, I’ll focus on data where a significant change happened compared to previous years, as well as new/revised questions. First, a few quick notes:

• You can see my analysis of previous years’ data here (2024), (2023), here (2022), here (2021), here (2020), here (2019), here (2018), and here (2017).
• This data is specifically from those who choose to follow Stonemaier Games AND choose to reply to the survey (around 8,000 people), so it is not necessarily representative of the greater gaming community. I welcome the sharing of results of any other similar surveys in the comments.

Our audience was highly motivated by the prospect of a prize to reply to the survey.

Most years when I send the demographic survey, we get a few thousand responses–an average of around 3,000. This year, for every 1,000 respondents, I offered a chance at a $100 gift card for our webstore to use on any 2026 products. The number of respondents doubled as compared to last year, with 8,446 surveys submitted as of this writing. I’ve already contacted the winners and sent them their gift cards (it was interesting to see that 4 of them have never made a Stonemaier webstore purchase despite being newsletter subscribers).

Our audience indicated an increased reliance on reviews for purchasing decisions.

This is a question I asked because I wanted to make sure we are allocating our resources properly when sharing information about new products. Last year, 31% of people said they use playthroughs when deciding whether to buy a game, leading to us sponsoring a total of around 40 playthrough videos from 8 different content creators in 2025.

This year, the survey results showed the use of playthroughs dropping to 26% and reviews increasing by the same amount, up to 42%. While this is significant, I don’t think it will change our strategy, as we already offer thousands of review copies to a variety of content creators each year (with around 1,000 products accepted for review).

A minority of our audience sleeves cards in every game.

Our survey shows that 18% of people sleeve cards in most games, a decrease compared to last year’s 23%. Perhaps people are trusting the quality and durability of the 310 gsm ivorycore cardstock we use (usually with linen embossing), along with our lifetime replacement parts service.

Our audience is patient (and busy with the games they already have).

Over the last few years I’ve asked subscribers how long they prefer to wait between paying for a new game and receiving it. I thought maybe there might be some crowdfunding burnout–it’s tough to spend $50-$100 on something that you don’t receive for 1-2 years, especially when there are many great games available right now.

However, every year more people seem fine with waiting. This year, the number of respondents who are happy to wait 6-18+ months for a game they’ve already paid for went up to 47%. You might think this indicates an increased interest in crowdfunding, but wait until you see the next insight.

Our audience wants to buy more from local retailers and way less from online stores and crowdfunding campaigns.

I typically include the question, “Which place did you use the MOST for buying games this year?” This year the results showed 37% from online stores, 21% from local stores, 20% from publisher webstores, and 16% from crowdfunding campaigns.

But I also added a new question this year: “If it’s different than your previous answer, which place are you hoping to use more for buying games in 2026?” The answer was vastly different than the previous question. Taking into account that 27% said that their answer wouldn’t change, I think it’s still statistically significant that only 2% said crowdfunding campaigns. Local stores are the big winners here, jumping up to 33%.

Of course, Stonemaier Games already doesn’t use crowdfunding, and we strongly support the vast ecosystem of local game stores. When you buy from a local store, not only are you supporting the local economy, but also don’t have to pay for shipping, you might discover something unexpected, and there’s a good chance they might even be able to teach you how to play. Plus, it combines well with the idea of patience as I noted above: Just recently I ordered Agent Avenue and the Mandalorian pack for Star Wars Deckbuilding from my local store, and I was totally fine that they said it might take a few weeks–I have plenty of games waiting to be played and replayed in the meantime. If you’ve been waiting to get the new Wingspan promo birds from your local retailer, they’re now available!

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Huge thanks to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey! What do you think about these results (and how creators could act on them to better serve you)?

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