#fandom data

[ao3demographicssurvey2024]

The AO3 Demographics Survey 2024 was an unofficial demographics survey of 16,131 AO3 users conducted in January 2024. We have just finished posting our initial results, so here is just a taste of the graphs and data you can check out now over on AO3!

The anonymised dataset from this survey is now available for researchers.

A full list of the survey questions with links to the relevant data is below the cut!

Demographics

How old are you?

Do you identify as LGBTQ+ in any form?

What is your gender identity?

Do you identify as any of the following? (LGBTQ+ related identities)

What is your sexual orientation?

What is your romantic orientation?

What is your race?

Is English your native language?

Which geographic region best describes your current place of residence?

Which religious or spiritual tradition(s) do you believe?

Do you experience the following? (Disability, Neurodivergence, and Health Conditions)

Usage of AO3

Which of the following AO3 activities have you done in the last twelve months?

How frequently do you use the following methods to find works on AO3?

In a typical week, how long do you spend on AO3 or reading downloaded AO3 works?

When did you begin using AO3, with or without an account?

When did you create your first AO3 account?

What languages do you use for reading and posting on AO3?

Works You Post On AO3

Which of the following types of works do you post on AO3? (Media)

Of the works you post on AO3, how often do you post works with the following ratings?

Of the works you post on AO3, how often do you post works focused on the following types of relationships?

Of the works you post on AO3, how often do you post works in the following genres/tags?

Of the works you post on AO3, how often do you post the following types of works? (Format & Miscellaneous)

Works You Consume On AO3

Which of the following types of works do you consume on AO3? (Media)

How much do you enjoy works with the following ratings on AO3?

How much do you enjoy works focused on the following types of relationships on AO3?

How much do you enjoy works in the following genres/tags on AO3?

How much do you enjoy the following types of works on AO3? (Format & Miscellaneous)

Fandom Beyond AO3

Which of the following types of fanworks have you consumed in the last year?

Which of the following types of fandom activity have you done in the last year?

Which of the following websites or apps do you currently use for fandom activities at least once a month?

Which of the following websites or apps have you previously used for fandom activities, but no longer regularly use?

When did you first begin participating in fandom?

How many fandoms have you considered yourself a part of in the last five years?

Which of the following types of media do you participate in fandoms for?

[elumish]

I was curious about to what degree the Harry Potter fandom has died out (or not) since both the end of the main series/film series and JKR's increasingly vocal transphobia in the last seven or so years, so I started pulling HP data per year for the main categories (M/M, F/M, F/F, Gen), and thus far I've found a number of things that largely boil down to "No, at least in terms of people updating fics on AO3, it has not died down."

For most of the categories, HP actually growing faster than the category as a whole in a number of the years since JKR started being openly transphobic. For F/M fics in particular, HP fics made up 7.55% of all F/M fics updated in 2025, which is the highest rate since 2011. (This is almost certainly due to the Dramione popularity.)

For M/M fics, there was a small dip in 2019 (reflected in the % of total M/M fics updated that year, not the number of HP fics posted per day), but then it immediately started going back up to pre-2019 percentages.

[centrumlumina]

Did your ship make the top 10?

The new AO3 Ship Stats are now available to view on my AO3.

[supernatural-word-search]

Usage of the word 'bitch' throughout the entirety of Supernatural (all 15 seasons).

Like I said, Dean is absolutely putting in the work. Amazing.

[destinationtoast]

Come join the Fandom Data Projects community! (You don't need to have a project or any relevant background... just curiosity 🤓)

Join fandom data projects • Community on Tumblr

For those interested in fandom stats & data (no experience required!)

Apparently I can't reblog the community post I made outside the community, so to quote myself:

Hello, fans of fandom data science, fandom research, fandom stats, fandom surveys, fandom data visualization, and everything related! 🪭📊📈📋📓🎉🎉🎉 I run a blog called @toastystats , and I love fandom data! I am starting this community for folks with a personal or academic curiosity about fans/fanworks and a desire to answer questions with data 🧑‍🔬. All of the following are welcome here: * Sharing questions about fandom and brainstorming ways to gather relevant data; * Sharing analyses & insights; * Trading tips on how to gather or analyze data; * Chatting about methods; * Asking for volunteers to participate in surveys or help gather data; * Anything else related!

Learners and lurkers are welcome. Drama and discourse are not; please be thoughtful and generous in how you participate in the group, and try not to stir controversy. (That's not to say there aren't valid fandom research topics that involve controversies -- but the goal of this space is to focus on people helping each other with research and learning in a low stress environment.)

(Honestly I'm starting this partly because I'm curious about the Tumblr community feature, and I like to learn by trying things. 🤓 We'll see how this goes.)

[tengirl]

here are the results to my 2025 doctor who fandom survey! thank you to all 603 of you that responded! this year’s survey was fun and i hope to be back next year once again 💫🔭🛸

[bowtiepastabitch]

Good Omens Fandom Data 2024

Raw data, calculations, and graphs. Fancy graphics Here!

This post is less organized than usual because I just spent two hours turning it into fancy infographics, but here's the raw data for those who are interested:)

All data was pulled December 17th between 10pm and 3am while logged into ao3. Due to the archival function of ao3, it is not uncommon for numbers to fluctuate as readers can choose to remove their works (or parts of them) as they please, which can affect total numbers as well as date categories and tag organization.

The dates pulled are for 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-16 for the year total and 2024-x-01 to 2024-x-30/31 for monthly pulls. Fics are filed by their most recent update, rather than date of first publishing, on ao3 meaning any fic updated this year will be included in the data even if it has been a running WIP for multiple years.

Word and comment counts were calculated using the natural "pages" layout of 20 works per page to assemble a calculation of the average or total when sorted numerically in the archive. The top 20 entries are entered independently, and from there intervals are used to get an estimate of the larger body of work. For example:

(SUM of top 20 wordcounts) + (wordcount of item 21 + WC41 + WC61 + WC81 + WC101)(20) = total wordcount items 1-121

As the tail end of the data creates larger swaths of entries with essentially the same average accross smaller intervals, the intervals used become longer as seen here:

From this estimated total wordcount, I'm able to get an estimated total for the set. For wordcount specifically, I excluded the wordcounts of two large H*rry P*tt*r fics with crossover elements in the top 20 out of both spite and a desire to maintain some level of numerical purity. This more than balances out the effect of pulling representative samples on the high end of each interval.

All content data is dependent on tagging, which is not standardized. Thus, the numbers represented are only as accurate as the authors' tagging abilities. For example, while you'll see genitalia identifiers as a common tag for smut fics, they're still only present on the fraction of fics that choose to list them. The lack of a tag does not automatically imply the opposite. Likewise, some fics containing some explicit content that are not pornographic in nature/focus will choose to list as Mature instead of Explicit. The two categories are both "adult" content, so it's an author's choice which rating best suits the material.

My ask box is always open if you have questions!! I love talking about this shit it's one of my favorite little hyperfixations. :)

Tagging @queer-reader-07 because xe consistently enjoys these types of posts:)

[audrelite]

Which ships are the most popular with fic writers?: An empirical study of Wattpad | Bulbagarden

https://www.bulbagarden.net/threads/which-ships-are-the-most-popular-with-fic-writers-an-empirical-study-of-wattpad.309860/

data collected and written by pilosophos. As someone who has an interest in both shipping and fandom studies in general, I found this post to be quite insightful, and even a little amusing given how much certain anime characters showed up in these lists.