D&D 2024 is Now Officially Known as “D&D 5.5e”

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Over the past few years there’s been debate among the Dungeons & Dragons community as to what to actually call the new 2024 rules. Even Wizards of the Coast has seemed unsure on the name, originally calling it “D&D One” and often using the name “D&D 2024” in official messaging and product materials.

Now, however, WotC has announced that the updated rules will officially be known as D&D 5.5e. The news was announced via a detailed FAQ page offering more insight into the decision. On D&D Beyond, the new “D&D 5.5e” tag will now appear on all 2024 materials, while 2014 materials will be designated simply as “D&D 5e.”

Below, we take a closer look at what this means for the community and whether or not this name change really was the right call.

Why did Wizards of the Coast change the name to D&D 5.5e?

According to Wizards of the Coast, the reason for the official name designation was to avoid confusion among fans when switching between rules versions. In the FAQ they note:“As more players use D&D Beyond with a mix of 2014 and 2024 content, we’ve seen some confusion about which rules apply. Using “5e” and “5.5e” makes it quicker and easier to tell what you’re working with.”

Do fans actually call it “D&D 5.5e”?

On the FAQ page, WotC also notes that “As D&D Beyond evolved and more players used both versions side by side, it became clear that “5.5e” matched how the community already talks about the game and made things easier to understand.” But is that true? If we look at Google Trends (which analyzes ongoing search interest for specific term and gives it a score from 0 to 100%), we can see that the term “DnD 2024” is far more searched than almost any other term, including “dnd 5.5” and “dnd 5.5e.”

We can also back up this information with actual Google search volumes. Below is a table from Google Keyword Planner, which looks at the average number of monthly searches for a specific term (for ease of analysis, we’ve filtered for the US, Canada, UK and Australia). Again, “DnD 2024” is by far the most searched term, with almost x6 the searches as “dnd 5.5e” (you’ll also note it’s far more common for users to search for “dnd” than “D&D”). That being said, there is a strong growth in the term “dnd 5.5e,” particularly over the past three months and past year, so it’s possible that more and more individuals are using this term.

It’s also worth noting that“dnd5.5e” doesn’t work in hashtags (which don’t allow you add periods). This also means that the new official name will be bit more cumbersome to use than the much more social friendly “dnd2024.”

Google search term	Monthly searches (12 month average)	Three month change	YoY change
dnd 2024	6,600	0%	+50%
dnd 5.5	1,000	+14%	-23%
dnd 5.5e	1,300	+46%	+19%
d&d 2024	1,300	+23%	-33%
d&d 5.5	260	0%	-33%
d&d 5.5e	140	+55%	+55%

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter what we choose to call the latest Dungeons & Dragons rules. What matters is whether the game is actually worth running at the table and has been actively embraced by the the community. In that sense, D&D 5.5e (or whatever you want to call it) is largely a success, despite the confusion around its designation. After all, a game by another name still plays the same.

You can learn more about WotC’s rationale on the official D&D Beyond name change FAQ page.

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