Per capita turkey consumption

Dungeons & Dragons players worldwide and U.S. per capita turkey consumption have, between 2017 and 2022, moved in opposite directions at a correlation of -0.981. The game climbed. The turkey, quietly, did not. It is oddly satisfying to imagine the displaced Thanksgiving plate filling up instead with a character sheet.

D&D's player base grew from around 14 million in 2017 to over 30 million by 2022, driven by streaming play and the pandemic-era explosion of online campaigns. Per capita turkey consumption declined slightly, from around 16 pounds per person to under 15, continuing a long post-2000s drift as poultry consumption concentrated in chicken and plant-based proteins took a small but real share. The two trends are not causally linked in any way, but both belong to the same shift in millennial household behaviour: one hobby absorbing more of an evening, one traditional centrepiece losing a little of its gravity.

Six years of two lines diverging can describe a generation playing more and eating less turkey. The dice and the drumstick are not in competition. They are, however, in the same week.