Artists in theory, Art is a theory. 🧬

These are a variety of popular ships from english language canons to try to get a reasonable(ish) comparison. They’re either mathematically popular, or perceived as extremely popular despite having fewer works posted. Years are measured since that ship spiked in popularity. If it’s the overall fandom, the year is when it was first released in any capacity. 

I’m excluding crossovers.

Hollanov - 41k works (8 months) Spirk - 25k works (59 years) Stony - 48k works (14 years) Stucky - 69k works (nice) (15 years) Johnlock - 72k works (16 years Drarry - 85k works (26 years) Destiel - 123k works (12 years)

Game Changer Books - 47k works (2018) Star Trek (all) - 121k works (1966) Avengers, incl comics - 308k works (1963) MCU - 649k works (2008) Sherlock Holmes - 165k works (1887/2010) Harry Potter - 641k works (1997) Supernatural - 294k works (2005) Dr Who - 70k works (2005)

But Strife! you say, this is unbalanced because modern fandoms can’t be compared to the ancient texts! Don’t worry, I’ve got you, here's some more recent things. 

Hollanov - 41k works (8 months) Stucky - 69k works (15 years) Steddie - 38k works (4 years) Byler - 39k works (10 years)  Ineffable Husbands - 66k works (7 years)

Game Changer Books - 47k works (2018) Stranger Things - 153k works (2016) The Pitt - 29k works (2025) Good Omens - 97k works (1990/2018)

But waittttttt, you say, it’s still not a clean enough comparison of the change in fandom culture! Okay. I'll get closer.

Stucky was very popular, and close to monolithic after Winter Soldier came out, yeah? And Steddie absolutely exploded after season 4 of Stranger Things came out. And Destiel (after turbohell) had a massive spike in fics! Those felt overwhelming at the time. They were an absolute feast for readers.

Hollanov arrived about 8 months ago. We’ll use that as the window length. So. In the first 8 months of the ship being around, (destiel measures after It went canon) these are how many works were published:

Hollanov - 41k works = 168/day Steddie - 12k works = 49/day Stucky - 5k works = 20/day Destiel - 10k works = 41/day

I am not making any kind of judgement on anything. I am not implying fuckall. I am not at all trying to account for the variance of one shots vs long fics.

Here's my only point:

This is some spiders georg shit.