Findings
This is the first published snapshot, using the 18–19 October snapshot. The combined ranking and platform breakdowns show ten families each; the downloads contain all 33 classification families, including eight marked not_collected. The main ranking adds Discord memberships and Reddit subscribers; separate Discord and Reddit rankings provide the breakdowns. Cross-platform overlap is retained in the combined total.
Each system total adds the observed memberships of its directly associated communities on that platform. Each family total adds its tracked system totals. A shared community is deliberately counted again for every associated system, including several systems in the same family. These are additive membership signals, not unique people, active players, sales or market share. Large families and shared publisher communities can produce large totals under this formula.
Coverage and limitations
The fixed collection cohort contains the 62 catalogue entries with direct source mappings on both platforms in classification v3. All 44 selected Discord sources and 59 selected Reddit sources have counts. This is complete source collection for that cohort, not complete family or RPG-market coverage. Systems mapped on only one platform are outside this first snapshot.
Only 53 entries have a family assignment, spanning 25 families. The nine unclassified entries remain in systems.csv with blank family IDs and do not contribute to family totals. Other members of those families outside the cohort have not been measured; the displayed totals cover tracked systems only. A family absent from this cohort has a missing value, not zero.
Discord approximate member counts were collected on 18 October. Reddit subscriber counts were visually transcribed on 19 October from metadata-page screenshots. Original screenshots contain browser/account context, are kept locally outside Git, and cannot be independently inspected from a fresh clone. Integrity checks verify recorded hashes and structured data; they do not establish transcription accuracy. The transcription has not been independently rechecked against the original screenshots.
No previous compatible snapshot exists, so all monthly changes are null. This is neither a monthly average nor a month-end count. This explicitly dated snapshot was published after its capture window closed, before month-end.
Reproduce and inspect
Run python3 scripts/prepare_index.py --check from the repository root to verify the frozen calculation. Omitting --check regenerates calculated files only while the release remains a draft. The frozen method is in methodology.txt; calculation.json pins input and output checksums. contributions.csv records every system/source contribution and sources.json records family attribution and multiplicity. systems.csv includes the combined total and both platform subtotals. The combined metric is selected first in the ranking table, followed by Discord and Reddit breakdowns.
Corrections
Initial publication r1, 28 October 2026. No prior measured version has been released. Preserve revision-named downloads and document any corrections after publication.