Astarion in print, read by Neil Newbon, on the official D&D channel
The Baldur's Gate 3 vampire's novel, by T. Kingfisher, came out on September 29, and Newbon returned days later for a talk on building characters with Devora Wilde.
Dungeons & DragonsStory of Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.
Neil Newbon Returns as Astarion | Dungeons & Dragons
Neil Newbon is the thread running through the official Dungeons & Dragons channel this week. Three videos went up, and he is at the center of the biggest one and one of the others.
The first, "Neil Newbon Returns as Astarion," marked the release day of Baldur's Gate 3: Astarion, a novel about the silver-haired vampire spawn who spends the game trying to escape centuries of servitude. T. Kingfisher wrote it, and Newbon, who won Best Performance at The Game Awards in 2023 for playing Astarion, narrates the audiobook. It is the week's most watched upload by a wide margin, with more than 90,000 views. The comment section, though, is less about the trailer than about the book. Many viewers argue over whether the novel's Astarion matches the one from the game, and several wish one of the game's own writers had taken it on. Newbon himself gets nothing but affection, and one viewer would like to see him cast in a stage version of Rocky Horror.
On Monday he came back, this time beside Devora Wilde, the voice of Lae'zel, for "The Hero's journey," a D&D Talks session on how the two build and play their characters. Half a day in, it is already the channel's fastest mover. In between came DM Roulette, a live one-shot from the BlackwaterDnD crew in which every player takes a turn in the Dungeon Master's chair.
Views overall ran at less than half the channel's usual pace, and subscribers grew only a little. Even so, among the tabletop and anime channels close to its size, only two added more views over the week. ZachTheBold had by far the largest week, while Min-Maxed was one of the few running above its usual level.
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What viewers say
Honestly? Ima need you to take on a role of playing Dr. Frankenfurter in some version of Rocky Horror. Like, make it happen. Plz.
@ScotchRanger945See it on YouTubeNeil!!!!!❤❤❤❤
@Smilies-p5fSee it on YouTube
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The videos drawing views on Dungeons & Dragons right now
- Channel
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Subscribers
- 755,000 ▲ 1,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 539,902
- Videos published this week
- 3
- Video published
- September 29, 2026
- Video views so far
- 91,911
- Views on its first day
- 38,432
The numbers
Here is how the official Dungeons & Dragons channel's week looks in figures.
💡 Test your knowledge
Which studio developed Baldur's Gate 3, the game Astarion comes from?
Baldur's Gate 3 was made by the Belgian studio Larian Studios and released in full in 2023.
