Star Wars: Destiny U.S. Regional Attendance Report – Overall Numbers and a Comparison of the Past Two Seasons

Written by Bill Yankosky (aka Yodaman)

After 38 events over nearly 3 months, the 2018-19 U.S. Regional season for Star Wars: Destiny is now over.  In addition to gathering information about the decks which have made the top cuts, I Rebel has also kept track of attendance at Regionals over the past two years.  We’ll explore the 2017-18 vs. the 2018-19 attendance at U.S. Regionals in different ways in this article.

Attendance at 2018-19 U.S. Regionals

The following chart lists all 38 U.S. Regionals during the 2018-19 season and the attendance at each in order.

State	City/Town	2018-19 Attendance
New Jersey	Boonton	78
Minnesota	Roseville	77
Oregon	Portland	70
Maryland	Glen Burnie	69
Wisconsin	Greenfield	66
Connecticut	Newington	65
Illinois	Niles	64
Texas	Dallas	64
Virginia	Ashburn	64
California	San Diego	60
Alabama	Birmingham	58
Kentucky	Louisville	57
Michigan	Warren	56
Washington	Lacey	56
Oklahoma	Tulsa	53
Texas	Austin	50
North Carolina	Raleigh	49
California	Mountain View	48
Indiana	Muncie	48
New Hampshire	Derry	48
Ohio	Springfield	47
North Dakota	Fargo	45
California	Fresno	43
Colorado	Denver	43
Kansas	Mission	40
New York	New York	39
Wisconsin	Green Bay	36
Utah	Draper	34
Florida	Miami	33
Nevada	Las Vegas	26
Georgia	Marietta	22
Louisiana	Covington	21
Arizona	Prescott	20
Nebraska	Bellevue	20
Idaho	Meridian	16
Maine	Standish	15
New Mexico	Albuquerque	10
Hawaii	Honolulu	9

Overall U.S. Attendance Numbers: 2017-18 vs. 2018-19

Overall attendance at U.S. regionals fell by a raw total of 168 participants (an 8.9% decrease), although there were more U.S. Regionals results reported to I Rebel this season (38 vs. 33).   While it is disappointing to see the decrease, in the grand scheme of things it really wasn’t that big of a drop.  At least at the Regional level, the game does not appear to be dead since there were over 1700 players at U.S. Regionals this year.  This data is summarized in the following chart.  We do want to point out that some locations had caps that ultimately prevented some players from being able to play and that certainly may have impacted the numbers.  Also the drops in average and median attendance could partially be attributed to the fact there were more Regionals overall so that gave players more options.

	2017-18 33 U.S. Regionals	2018-19 38 U.S. Regionals	Year to Year Attendance Change	Year to Year Percentage Change in Attendance
Total Attendance	1887	1719	-168	-8.9%
Average Attendance	57.18	45.24	-11.94	-20.88%
Median Attendance	55	48	-7	-12.73%
Highest Attendance	98	78	-20	-20.41%
Lowest Attendance	8	9	+1	+12.5%

Areas That Held Regionals Each in both 2017-18 and 2018-19.

For our next analysis, we decided to do direct attendance comparisons for Regionals that were held in the same general, major metropolitan area even if they were at different stores/locations. In many cases, our research showed the events were held at the exact same store/location both years.  However, in some cases they were not.  For example, the Regionals held in the state of Washington each season were at different stores, but both were in the Seattle metropolitan area according to our research.  In instances such as that, we still included those Regionals in this direct comparison.  Below are two charts presenting the data both in terms of raw numbers and percentages.

Highlights of Results

• 25 metropolitan areas (according to our criteria)  in the U.S. held Regionals in both the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.
• Only 4 of those areas had net increases in attendance. The largest increase was in Birmingham, AL where they saw 12 more participants this season. Birmingham also had the largest percentage increase in attendance at +26.09%
• Marietta, GA unfortunately saw the largest decrease in attendance. They had 42 fewer participants this season. Marietta also had the largest percentage decrease in attendance at -65.63%.

Overall U.S. attendance increase/decrease (highest increase to highest decrease)

Location (U.S.)	2017-18 Attendance	2018-19 Attendance	Attendance Increase/Decrease
Birmingham, AL	46	58	+12
Dallas, TX	55	64	+9
Boonton, NJ	75	78	+3
Austin, TX	49	50	+1
Denver, CO	44	43	-1
Seattle Area, WA	57	56	-1
Glen Burnie, MD	73	69	-4
Meridian, ID	21	16	-5
Bellevue, NE	25	20	-5
Tulsa, OK	59	53	-6
Lansing, MI	64	56	-8
Roseville, MN	85	77	-8
Honolulu, HI	18	9	-9
Fargo, ND	55	45	-10
Portland, OR	85	70	-15
Mission, KS	59	40	-19
Miami, FL	53	33	-20
Prescott, AZ	41	20	-21
North California	71	48	-23
Las Vegas. NV	53	26	-27
Newington, CT	97	65	-32
Niles, IL	98	64	-34
San Diego, CA	96	60	-36
Louisville, KY	97	57	-40
Marietta, GA	64	22	-42

Overall Percentage Increase/Decrease by Location

Location (U.S.)	2017-18 Attendance	2018-19 Attendance	Year to Year Percentage Change in Attendance
Birmingham, AL	46	58	+26.09%
Dallas, TX	55	64	+16.36%
Boonton, NJ	75	78	+4%
Austin, TX	49	50	+2.04%
Seattle Area, WA	57	56	-1.75%
Denver, CO	44	43	-2.27%
Glen Burnie, MD	73	69	-5.48%
Roseville, MN	85	77	-9.41%
Tulsa, OK	59	53	-10.17%
Lansing, MI	64	56	-12.5%
Portland, OR	85	70	-17.65%
Fargo, ND	55	45	-18.18%
Bellevue, NE	25	20	-20%
Meridian, ID	21	16	-23.81%
Mission, KS	59	40	-32.2%
North California	71	48	-32.39%
Newington, CT	97	65	-32.99%
Niles, IL	98	64	-34.69%
San Diego, CA	96	60	-37.5%
Miami, FL	53	33	-37.74%
Louisville, KY	97	57	-41.24%
Honolulu, HI	18	9	-50%
Las Vegas, NV	53	26	-50.94%
Prescott, AZ	41	20	-51.22%
Marietta, GA	64	22	-65.63%

States That Had Regionals Each Season in Different Areas

Finally, 4 states had Regionals both seasons but the events took place in different metropolitan areas.  It’s interesting to compare the numbers from these events to see if the change in location had any impact on attendance.  One state, Wisconsin, had only 1 Regional in 2017-18, but was awarded 2 Regionals in 2018-19.  These Regionals were in different metropolitan areas which is why they are included in the chart below.  In the case of Wisconsin, the addition of a 2nd Regional resulted in far more participants taking place in Regionals in that state this year as compared to last year even though both 2018-19 Regionals individually had lower attendance than the single 2017-18 Regional in Wisconsin.   For two other states (North Carolina and Ohio), attendance was actually better after the change in location in 2018-19.   Only the change in the New York state location from Rochester to NYC resulted in a drop in attendance.  However, NYC is located in a larger area on the East Coast where there were many Regionals and it’s possible people just chose not to travel into NYC given the other options they had.

State	Location	2017-18	2018-19	Attendance Increase/Decrease
New York	Rochester (2017-18) NYC (2018-19)	65	39	-26
North Carolina	Cornelius (2017-18) Raleigh (2018-19)	41	49	+8
Ohio	North Olmsted (2017-18) Springfield (2018-19)	45	47	+2
Wisconsin*	Middleton (2017-18) Green Bay and Greenfield (2018-19)	76	G.B.:  36 Grnfld:66	G.B.:  – 40 Greenfield:   -10

Locations with U.S. Regionals in 2017-18, but NOT in 2018-19

Finally, for the sake of completion, we want to include information about the 4 locations which held U.S. Regionals in 2017-18, but did not have one in 2018-19. Despite having 2 fairly highly attended Regionals in 2017-18, Florida was only was awarded a single Regional in 2018-19.

State	City/Town	2017-18 Attendance
West Virginia	Martinsburg	53
Florida	Panama City	42
Missisippi	Gautier	17
Alaska	Anchorage	8

Thanks again to I Rebel for giving me the opportunity to explore and discuss the attendance results from Regionals. Also, thanks to everyone who took the time to read this lengthy article. It’s much appreciated.