Great Wargames Survey

[fsn]

The 2025 survey closes on 31st August.
https://gws2025.paperform.co/

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Done

[Steve J]

Done a while ago now.

[Big Insect]

Done

[Orcs]

Does anyone know what this survey is actually used for, and/or what its relevance is?

I can see current interests being useful to the publisher for commissioning or printing future articles of interest to a wider audience. But I fail to see how many figures I have being relevant to that.

[Gwydion]

Various online discussions and reviews of this data:
Little Wars TV on the GWS 2023
Karwansaray's data from various years
And lots of fora and blogs and manufacturers talking about it.
I guess the results help some keep an eye on where the hobby might be going - thousand of the little blighters in mass battles, ten larger types in skirmish 'armies' etc. It's of interest but how accurate the data is - after all it's a self selected sample - but it is c10K forms returned which must be a fair chunk of the wargaming public?
Most polls aim for c1,000 sample size to claim accuracy - even for a population of tens of millions.
Having said that the current 'pick 3' format seems to chop the preferences and what the number of figs per person tells them I'm not sure. That there's always room for just a little more a la Monsieur Creosote perhaps?

[fred.]

Karwansaray seem to do a pretty good job of sharing results and insights from the survey. I think it is intended much more as a state of the wargaming world, rather than something to just drive the next magazine articles.

The constraint of the survey (as is often pointed out) is that it is self-selecting, and as such probably largely misses the GW focused side of wargaming. But perhaps you can read GW's investor reports to get a feel for that hobby!

[Ithoriel]

Besides making me feel that I am not alone in possessing a collection that is not so much a lead mountain and more a whole mountain range the "how many figures do you have?" questions presumably have some bearing on potential future sales.

Surely, if the average wargamer has 1,000 figures in their collection then new figures are an easier sell than if the average is 100,000.

I do wonder if the numbers declared are a counted and tallied number/ a finger in the air guesstimate/ what they've told their significant other they have. Mine are certainly the middle system.

[DecemDave]

I do wonder if the numbers declared are a counted and tallied number/ a finger in the air guesstimate/ what they've told their significant other they have. Mine are certainly the middle system.

I also gave the middle finger system. 
I definitely have several thousand ready that could see a tabletop with 24 hours notice to organise them.  But I really don't want to think too hard about the unpainted 10mms. recalling the size of my 1500 strong non kickstarter Peninsular as a rough estimating tool, I must have 5,000 plus biblicals, dark age and medievals awaiting sunlight.

[sunjester]

I also use a rough guesstimate, flip a coin then multiply by the square of the number of birds I can see in my garden today.

[fsn]

32,284 painted; 5,192 lead mountain; 524 "spares" to be disposed of.

I think some of you chaps really aren't trying with the administration. 

[fsn]

The survey didn't really dig into the breadth of the hobby.

Yes, I have 32,284 painted figures, but there is a range: Napoleonic British (1815) is 1714 figures; Border Reivers are 40 per side; Imperial Rome 432. A WWII 1:1 platoon sized force of less than 100 figures (admittedly plus some vehicles) fills up a table as well as a 1000 figure Napoleonic army. 

 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

A shed full

A non-standard shed, none of your metric or imperial sheds here.

[Orcs]

Surely, if the average wargamer has 1,000 figures.......

Does He/she count as a "Real" wargamer?