#ao3 demographics

[ao3demographicssurvey2024]

The AO3 Demographics Survey 2024 has arrived!

This project is an independent survey (not affiliated with AO3) which seeks to research the demographics and behaviours of AO3 users. The survey will take about 10-15 minutes to complete, will be open until 1 February, and can be found at https://forms.gle/2kt5J17ipzcAbnFY9

We are hoping to survey as large a group of users as possible, so we really appreciate anyone who shares the survey, whether by reblogging this post or sharing posts on other social media.

If you have any questions for us, we have FAQs on Tumblr or on AO3 which will be updated as the project progresses. And of course, you can follow us on Tumblr or AO3 if you want to see the survey results!

[spacebeyonce]

it's like the tumblr polls!!! baby no matter how you slice it ao3 is white as hell!!! the people with sense already knew!!!

[ellekhen]

ElleKhen here! I'm curious about the demographic make-up of my readers.

This is anonymous and absolutely only on a voluntary-basis. Please don't feel obligated to fill this out if you would prefer not to, I'm just curious. :)

Tried to be thorough but the poll function only allows for so many options! So sorry in advance if I missed anything (and feel welcome to let me know in a comment or message.)

[afanficionado]

AO3 Ship Stats: 2024 (public&locked fics)

I collected ship data on AO3 to calculate what the new top 100 ships on AO3 were as of 2024 and also to see what ships were most popularly written for the year.

I've seen other fandom people do this but I was always a little concerned with some of the things that I saw in the data collection methods, like ignoring locked fics in the count, which I thought could really impact the actual data, so I decided to learn how to do it myself.

This is the post on AO3 with tables and charts, if anyone is interested in knowing where their fandom is in the top 100 of the year or of all-time!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/56455240

I'll also put the data tables here in case you want to read the visual. Hope this is interesting to somebody!

The new all-time top 100 ships on AO3 after taking into account all fics up to June of this year!

Distribution of ship types among the top 100 ships on AO3, F/F is at 4% :(

The top ships written for 2024 only.

% of works that a ship has in its fandom

[gojhoes]

just doing my civic duty

[lovvecherrymotion]

okay so as much as i would have loved a queer mv, i didn't actually expect that to happen. i think they are very good at making queer fans feel included but i just don't actually expect them to be more explicitly queer when it comes to songs or videos idk. i just wish the others had a bit more screentime because they all looked SO good

[tacticalgrandma]

I love how fandom and ao3 are gay gay queer utopias right up until someone mentions how these environments seem to replicate the misogynistic patterns of the societies they come from, at which point all writers are cishet women.

[vinsportgar]

"you're like me,

you have that same emptiness."

colors are shit.

[jordansohollywood]

Just because it’s your “fun little hobby,” doesn’t mean fandom/fanfiction can’t assist in promoting bigotry. And I think white people need to hear this the most.

[starrycomics]

So I first got into comics and the Batman fandom during the height of my Teen Tumblr Years, around 2012-2016, and the fandom had a fairly specific vibe - a little niche, mostly sprung out of the Young Justice Fandom, very focused on complaining about the New 52

I’ve finally gotten back into comics this year (because I actually have disposable income now lol), and yes the fandom felt bigger and more sprawling, but I didn’t quite comprehend how much bigger until I decided to compare how many fics were tagged under the Batman fandom when I was reading as a teen

Versus now

That’s a WHOLE 100,000 NEW FICS??? And seemingly most of them written during the pandemic????

Like no wonder it seems like there’s more drama and infighting, there’s so many more people!! It also explains the shift in, shall we say, fandom norms and accepted tropes in Batfandom spaces, but that’s a whole other thing

[ao3demographicssurvey2024]

In the AO3 Demographics Survey 2024 - an unofficial demographics survey of 16,131 AO3 users - 71% of respondents were native English speakers, and 57% lived in part of North or Central America.

To see more analysis, including comparisons to the userbases of other websites, please view the full results on AO3.

[dragon-deez-ballz]

does anybody find exaggerated pervert characters actually funny at all. this post is about how much i fucking hate master roshi & hate when fanfic, fanart, or other works contain roshi for the sole purpose of making characters uncomfortable. how is his presence as a sexual predator not like.. actively upsetting? like i get sometimes its kink whatever ok, maybe i didnt read tags & thats on me. but it is too frequent to use roshi sexual harassment as an aside, og db-esque, as if thats some sort of standard that /needs/to be met

[ashdoesfandomarchieved]

wishing people who leave "constructive criticism" on fanworks a very go to hell

[sostrangerous]

ONLY 5 NCT FICS ON AO3 MENTION POPPERS... oh girl this is dire. im part of the problem but god damn

[ellekhen]

The results are in!

Thank you so much to everyone who answered this survey last week! I loved getting more insight into who's been reading and following my work, (and putting this together was pretty fun too. :D)

A couple of takeaways:

To all the ace folks: Well, I'm going to assume you're here for the angst and plot. Otherwise, I hope y'all haven't minded the smut! ^_^;

Shout out to the guys who've been enjoying my fics! I'll be honest, as someone who's been primarily writing mlm, it's tremendously validating to know you're here!

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the wide distribution of responses! All in all, no matter how you identify, I'm truly honored to know that you've all been enjoying this lil' Churchstarion universe.

As always, thank you so much for reading! I look forward to sharing more of these stories with you as our adventure goes on together. ❤️

(Not sure how readable the image is, so here's a text-only translation below the fold:)

ElleKhen's Self-Reported Reader Demographics

RESPONSES (n=26)

Female - Asexual/Aromantic/Demisexual: 26.9% Female - Straight/Heterosexual: 15.4% Male - Bisexual/Pansexual/Queer: 15.4% Female - Bisexual/Pansexual/Queer: 11.5% Male - Gay/Homosexual: 7.7% Non-binary/Gender-queer - Bisexual/Pansexual/Queer: 7.7% Non-binary/Gender-queer - Asexual/Aromantic/Demisexual: 7.7% Female - Lesbian/Sapphic: 3.8% Non-binary/Gender-queer - Lesbian/Sapphic: 3.8%

NO DATA: Non-binary/Gender-queer - Gay/Homosexual, Male - Asexual/Aromantic/Demisexual, Male - Straight/Heterosexual

---

BREAKDOWN BY GENDER

FEMALE (n=15) Asexual/Aromantic/Demisexual: 46.6% Straight/Heterosexual: 26.6% Bisexual/Pansexual/Queer: 20% Lesbian/Sapphic: 6.6%

NON-BINARY (n=5) Bisexual/Pansexual/Queer: 40.0% Asexual/Aromantic/Demisexual: 40.0% Lesbian/Sapphic: 20.0%

MALE (n=6) Bisexual/Pansexual/Queer: 66.6% Gay/Homosexual: 33.3%

[chocolatepot]

I made the mistake of checking on Twitter and happened to see R. S. Benedict having rancid fanfiction opinions again and I need to go for a walk for like an hour or something to calm down