It’s the spookiest time of the year, folks, and we’re less than a week away from Tumblr’s favorite holiday. With that in mind, we’ve prepared a special Fandometrics In Depth, with lots of data for all you monsters and ghouls to sink your claws and teeth into.
Celebrations started early on Tumblr, with the first big surge in Halloween posts appearing this spring. Compared to May, June saw a 44.35% increase in engagements with posts tagged #Halloween—in part due to this artistic and extremely goth crow. In July, engagements grew by a whopping 53.94% before things slowed down a little in August. But then, just like a spooky vampire leaping from its coffin, there was an incredible 221.54% surge in engagements surrounding #Halloween in September, kicking things off with this dance of joy. That growth is downright terrifying.
You may be familiar with Simblr, the 8th biggest community on Tumblr in 2018. Trust us when we say that Simblr loves all things Halloween, as this post from 2012 shows. Originally called Trick'r Simbling, the Sims fandom has been throwing its own Halloween party for years now—celebrating mods, custom creations, and art.
This year the official blog, which was launched in October of 2015, created this handy visual guide on proper trick-or-treat etiquette for all the ghosts, cryptids, and custom characters in the virtual neighborhood. If you visit participating blogs when their porch lights are on, and ring the doorbell, you’re sure to find something scary (or seasonal) in your inbox!
In late April, we noticed the first spike in conversation around the tag #goblincore—an aesthetic ideology revolving around taking on the generic traits of a goblin. These include hiding under bridges, collecting shiny things, and of course, eating dirt. The tag peaked on April 24th, when total engagements grew 469.73% over the previous week and 931.26% over the two weeks before that.
Since then, people have continued to lean in to their inner beastie, with boosts in similar tags including cryptidcore, mysterycore, and corvidcore. Aligned with that, people are also engaging more with cozy, nature-loving, off-the-grid communities, like cottagecore, farmcore, and, the most feel-good of them all, grandmacore. We’ve even seen a return of the meme Regional Gothic in new, illustrative reincarnations.
Want to see more? Sure you do!
Halloween Treat (@halloweentreat) is a mix of original and curated spooky content but without the horror. Bonus? Check out their side blog of homegrown pumpkins at @pumpkin-patch.
If you like humor, history, and really cool masks, you’ll probably like Humor, Pls (@plaguedoctormemes). They provide a healthy dose of, well, plague doctor memes, art, and of course, jokes about rats.
Want to dive into paranormal experiences? Let Ghost Quest (@ghostquest-usa) be your guide. If you live in the US, be sure to search the tags for your state to find your local haunts—we can confirm at least one of these.
andulkaphoto
titsay
theartofmadeline
turnnoffyourmind
jacobvanloon
discoholicmusic
