How Critical Role and Dimension 20 conquered the world one campaign at a time

What makes Dimension 20 work is that there is no silver bullet

The biggest hit on the internet right now isn't a scripted sitcom or a big budget movie

It's a group of friends sitting around a table, rolling dice and creating fantastic worlds for hours at a time

Shows like Critical Role and Dimension 20 have conquered both the internet

and live audiences across the world with their imaginations and hysterical banter

Not only do you not know who we are going to play or what setting it's in, we don't f***ing know who we're going to play or what setting it's in

But cultural phenomenons like these aren't forged overnight. It takes years worth of initiative, charisma checks, and nat 20s for these campaigns to get to where they are today

And we are going to break down why actual play sorcerers like Critical Role and Dimension 20 succeed and how they hit

Before we get into the magic of Critical Role in D20, it might help for us to first, very quickly, break down what actual play actually is

Actual play is the actual act of playing a game like Dungeons & Dragons

So these are a group of people that get around a table, and they roll the dice, and they make the checks

and this is like an extended campaign that these people will be playing for some time

There's a rule set, there's a game master, but what this is, is it's a collective world building that these people are doing together

It's the fellowship in Lord of the Rings if Tolkien were narrating the story and changing it based off of choices the characters made in real time

You shall be the fellowship of the ring. Right. Where are we going

We'll do a whole other video on how to build a great campaign, but for the sake of this video, we need to stick to what makes these epic shows so great

From the record-breaking success of Critical Role to the chaotic comedy of Dropout's Dimension 20

this historically geeky hobby has transformed into a massive industry. But it's not just about the dragons, and definitely not about the dungeons

It's about a unique kind of storytelling we've been starved for. Why does watching people play an hours-long game hit so hard in 2026

Actual play didn't just appear out of a bag of holding. Its DNA is a direct evolution of the Let's Play movement

In the late 2000s, pioneers like Slow Beef and Rad Brad proved that watching someone play a video game could be as entertaining as playing it yourself

But the bridge from digital to tabletop was built by Penny Arcade. In 2008, their Acquisitions Incorporated podcast proved that gaming audiences would sit for hours to watch people roll dice and do silly voices

Then came Geek and Sundry. In 2012, Will Wheaton's tabletop showed that high-quality editing and charismatic players could turn a board game into a spectacular sport

This paved the way for a group of voice actors to take what had historically been a private game amongst friends public in 2015

launching what we now know as Critical Role, the show that truly broke the mold

and brought in massive audiences like never before. Hello everyone, my name is Matthew Mercer

voice actor and dungeon master for Critical Role on Geek Sundry where I take a bunch of other voice actors and run them through a fantastical fantasy adventure through the world of Dungeons Dragons My market research document for Dimension 20 was like here is what is happening in the actual play genre and here are the shows who are doing it perfectly

Here are the shows that are doing it as well as it can be done, and Critical Role was at the very, very top of that list

Then, 2018 brought us Dimension 20's flagship series, Fantasy High. Welcome to Fantasy High

But again, that massive audience didn't just appear overnight. It wasn't until 2019 that actual play got its first major level up

Critical Role was made up of seasoned voice actors and writers. They wanted to turn their regular RPG into an animated show

So they set up a Kickstarter to raise $750,000 for a show they were calling Vox Machina

Within an hour, they'd already raised over $1 million and ended up raising $11.3 million by the campaign's end

This is one of the first indications that RPGs and actual play shows might have a bigger audience than anyone realized

We clearly didn't expect any of that that fast. And that was in the before times, because then arrived the big bad that no one saw coming, COVID

What ended up being one of the worst times in recent history became possibly the ingredient that actual play needed to truly break out

The reason? We all needed connection and finally had the time to find it

We were all stuck at home, starved for any semblance of getting to hang out with our friends or just a group of people that we enjoy being around

With the world on fire, we were all looking for any sense of escapism wherever we could find it

So we began to look outward the only way we safely could

The internet. With that, we saw apps like Twitch and YouTube explode with live streams

People were finding community in things that they could simultaneously watch and interact with people

I, myself, had a live streamed art game show where I became close with people I still have not met in person to this day

It was a real opportunity for us to be like, hey, it's not great right now, but for one hour a week, I guess

I could sit down, listen to these performers do this campaign and make me smile for a little bit

and make me feel like I belong to something for a little bit. So with shows like Critical Role

and Dimension 20, you had people creating a world that wasn't the isolated world that we were

living in at the time. It was a world of magic, camaraderie and possibility that you could safely

escape to. It was a group mind experience. I miss you guys so much. So whether it was a natural 20

where everyone loses their mind, or a critical fail where your party has to pick you up

the audience was able to feel that camaraderie. And for a lot of people, myself included

it kept me sane in remembering that there was not only good in this world

but strength in going through it with a group of people, with a squad, with a fellowship

You hear from entertainment in a lot of ways how competitive it is and builds this atmosphere, this idea of you succeed at the detriment of others

You know, climb the ladder and pull it up behind you, sort of a vibe. And I think a lot of that stems from just the old school industry and how it's functioned for so long

Now with companies like ours with Dropout people that have utilized the community and the internet to find support bases that aren relying on those classic structures that idea of succeeding at the cost of others is completely irrelevant and unnecessary Following in the footsteps of Dimension 20 and Critical Role actual play shows

have exploded in the last five years. Like you've got the Theater of the Mind Masters, like Not

Another D&D Podcast or NADDPod, who skipped the expensive sets and miniatures for pure character

engagement. Then you've got the McElroy Brothers with The Adventure Zone, who prove that you don't

need to follow the rules so strictly, as long as you commit to the world 100%

Since we are focusing on the actual play shows that have transcended audio

we'll finally get to what is the secret sauce behind Critical Role and D20

and how are they different? Critical Role does such a beautiful job of making sure that this world is dead serious

There are moments of levity and moments of lightheartedness, but the big bad in those campaigns is constantly draped on the shoulders of all their characters

Their checkered past, everything that goes into their character creation, that is chiseled into the stone of what they're writing

Dimension 20 is using this platform to explore fun. I think that's the main way to put it

You see Zakoyama, you see Murph, you see Emily at the table

and you're just waiting for whatever crazy thing they are going to come up with and how Brennan is going to roll his eyes

but ultimately be like, of course we can do that. Their world is so much lighter

but that doesn't mean that there's not stakes, that they're not taking it seriously, because these are performers that understand that the brief is

we're here to explore this world and push it forward and have fun. And it should be noted that every good campaign starts with a good game master

Starting with Critical Role, we have the high drama Master of Craft approach of Matt Mercer and Critical Role

Because Marisha came and did an adventuring academy. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. She came to set the week that YouTube or Reddit or wherever

had coined the term the Mercer effect. I'll tell you what, the Mercer effect is me and all my friends

having a f***ing job. That's the Mercer effect. And it remains true

Since the Critical Role crew are mostly voice actors and writers with their own animated Amazon show, Vox Machina

you know that it is so technically good and tight that the story is going to be amazing

Then you have Dimension 20, a hilarious band of chaotic improvisers who are prioritizing the joys of improv and comedy over all else

And not that Critical Role doesn't have that, too, but D20 truly feels like a group of your most hilarious friends going on a crazy adventure and just messing with each other along the way

Brandon will almost always respond to anything at the table with, holy shit, that's awesome

Oh, sick, it's got bugs on it, is a little truth. Oh, God

I didn't even... I should have noticed. Thanks for the bugs, mister! Like, you should repeat that in your head as a DM or a GM

Just, holy shit, that is a f***ing great idea. I would have never thought of that

I obviously haven't planned for that. But what my mental calculus allows me to do is instantly incorporate that into the world

Roll this check. Let's see if this works. If that kills something that I had six pages on, so be it

Burn it. That decision was awesome. Ugh. Move forward. He's a master at it

So let me say the answer to your question of what makes Dimension 20 work

is that there is no silver bullet. It is a massive team effort Our incredible cast of brilliant comedians each of whom in any given episode

makes a thousand brilliant decisions. Our incredible crew and the staff at Dropout

who piece by piece, moment by moment, make the right call with an artist on an illustration

make the right call as an editor with a cut to a certain camera

It is a victory in aggregate of like more than a hundred brilliant people

And it is so anathema, I think, to certain parts of our culture that are like, what's

the unique vision? What's the brilliant insight? What's the thing you saw at the horse racetrack that nobody else saw

It's ingrained in us to want that. And that is BS. It's malarkey

Everything good in life comes from usually a thousand or a million invisible contributions of people providing care and thoughtfulness

And I think that is very true of Dimension 20. Dimension 20, if it has a secret sauce, it's that we work with lots of great people who try really hard

Critical Role and D20 not only break the internet every time they have a new campaign, but their shows sell out arenas around the world

Why is that? What keeps us all coming back to watch people we aren't personally friends with sit around a table playing tabletop games

It's because at a time where we are inundated with content that shortens our attention spans and floods us with AI slop

actual play fights against that digital isolation we all experience on our phones every day

It offers collective unity in a way that few modes of entertainment actually do

You're watching extremely talented performers create a world in real time that not only entertains you, but can inspire you

When you see a group of supportive people finding their way through an impossible problem and level up

it can remind us that it's possible to level up in our own lives

In D&D, you'll attack something and you're going to take hits. You're going to get beaten up

You're going to get close to the brink. But you understand that you have a party. You have a group of people that are there

they're going to pick you up when you get hit, that are going to heal those hit points

and you're all going to level up together. And even if you don't play it, watching it makes you feel like you're a part of that fellowship

So when these groups start a new campaign, it's like you're meeting up with your best buds to take on another big bad

It's a beautiful allegory for our lives. Part of it is, like many things, it comes with experience

and sometimes you have to fail to learn better. If you have a few rougher sessions, so did I

many actual play reminds us that play is possible even when life feels insurmountable it reminds us

that we have a clan in real life clerics and healers who will pick us up when we take hits

and as long as we keep following the fun the world will take care of itself if you want to

know what makes a true hit like and subscribe for more deep dives in the meantime why don't you let

know what your favorite campaigns are in the comments. Until next time, we'll see you on How It Hits