Is Character Sheet Complexity the Level Eight Wall?

By the company's own numbers, most games never go past level eight.

Why is that?

I get the feeling that the invisible wall is created by the complexity of the character sheet and by how the game is evolving towards VTT-only play. My level fourteen multiclass character with a 16-page physical character sheet would be nearly impossible to run without a VTT.

Perhaps by level eight, the tipping point is reached for tabletop players in terms of being able to manage a typical 5E character sheet, and it forces people away from the game. The percentage of gamers who prefer tabletop play is shut out, and the participation level drops.

Nobody can be expected to flip through a dozen printed pages every turn to manage a character during their turn. And, no, phones are not the answer. Some groups ban phones at the table to reduce distractions, so stop forcing us to put character sheets on them.

Ignore this, and it is like a cereal manufacturer discovering why people don't buy their cereal, which is that the packaging was so full of holes that it kept going stale on the shelf. It was a great cereal, but few could find a box worth eating.

5E is a game that eventually forces you to play with a VTT. This is a major source of profitability and a huge design flaw. If you don't like it, don't play, and there are better games for high-level play.

It is what it is.