How many people make up the Ars Magica community?
There’s really no way to know. The mailing list currently includes about two hundred subscribers, and the digest includes about three hundred (as of February 2003), and while these represent a large section of the fan base, just how much is a question open to debate. So, your guess is as good as mine. The question of how representative the mailing list is of the community at large also seems to come up fairly regularly. The argument seems to end with the claim that the books that the people on the list like are the ones that sell well, so it’s reasonably representative of the community at large. Fifth Edition sold particularly well during the first few months it was in print, so there is a fair chance the edition at least partially met its goal of enlarging the player community.
