most of the time i only see dwarves, elves, humans, halflings, most of the time very human-looking characters

is it the meta because i rarely see the more non-human races like tieflings or kobolds or dragonborn etc

(just asking because all of them look same-ish(?))

Not sure what you mean, i do a wide variety of races it just depends on what i am building and what combination of abilities are needed.

I assume you're referring to D&D 5e.

Elves, Dwarves, and Humans are always the most common. The more monstrous races typically follow after that. I've run into plenty of Tieflings, Kobolds, Dragonborn, Aasimar, Genasi, and Goblins. Way too many Tabaxi for my tastes. Encountered a few Leonin, Kenku, Tortles, and Verdan, too.

Really it all depends on what the player is looking for in regards to both mechanically and role-playing. Whether or not you have the necessary books matters a whole lot, too. The vast majority of the monstrous races are only in later books, with the PHB only having Tieflings and Dragonborn.

I can only really speak to this from a Pathfinder 1e standpoint. The core races are fairly balanced and in-game they are widely encountered, either through several clans or tribes or cultures or from settling in different areas.

The uncommon races show up much less despite how popular some are with players (like Tieflings and Aasimar) and they're usually superior in terms of stats and bonuses. The GM has to not only balance their mechanical abilities with them being easily spotted in the world due to how rare they may be. For the ease of prep and play, they may just allow core races and/or allow a couple handpicked races from supplemental books. If the GM allows all of them, then you'll usually see a lot of Tieflings, Catfolk, Kitsune, and so on.

Core races get the most support so they end up being generally more optimal outside of specific concepts.

From the narrative side. If you are a weird race then that's probably your whole character concept. As opposed to it just being assumed core races are around and in the society.

Ignoring the specifics and malleability of canon, I think there's also possibly a comfort/empathy aspect for players.

People get used to human/humanesque faces and bodily features when they're projecting themselves onto their characters and indeed interacting with others around them, and while you have some people who like the more exotic/obscure races for different reasons, I can understand why playing something human and comprehendible (just perhaps a bit shorter, taller or shrunk) sits more within a comfort zone than something with hooves or scales, especially if you're also including aspects of romance in the game.

Add in the fact that there's still a lot of influence from things like Tolkein (which mainly features those kind of humanesque characters), and that most of the settings tend to feature worlds which largely focus around environments with human-esque characters in mind, and most players will probably pick something human or humanesque for their first and second characters.

Equally, given how much gameplay is defined by class rather than species, I can understand why players might default to those 3-4 species when they're exploring something new rather than trying to master both some species quirks and a new and unfamiliar playstyle at the same time.

All of that in turn probably is also picked up by the makers of games like DnD and Pathfinder and influence where they put the meta and their developments towards sub-species etc.

A lot of the star wars universe has humanoid looking races too.

I once was in a D&D game that was set in a forest and all the players had to be fey or centaurs, pixies or the like. It was a great concept but GM abandoned it soon after start up. I wouldn't mind having another Crack at it.

An idea I had was that there is something like a Roman gladiatorial arena type thing set in Faerun, and the concept is that a bunch of pics from monster races are trying to escape the pits, escape the city and get back to the hills.

But I think that's what you need to do to get non humanoid characters: to make up a monster concept for a game and run monster races.

must be nice to have tons of race variety

btw i have a question
if tabaxi is cat, kitsune is fox

what the dog (doin)
(and whats the wolf)

The wolf men are generally lumped in as Werewolves.

The dogs are Anticans </StarTrekNerd>

In reply to NoobyChoco (msg # 1):

Actually, I'd expect that to be the case because they're "Core" races, i.e. they appear in the basic rule books.    It's quite often that a DM will limit a game to Core book races only; which means humans, elves, dwarves, and the like.   That said, I like picking from the expanded lists of races; partially because you can take an otherwise well used concept and give in a new spin.