AO3 Ship Stats 2021
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | AO3 Ship Stats 2021 |
| Creator: | centrumlumina |
| Date(s): | July 31, 2021 |
| Medium: | Ao3 post |
| Fandom: | panfandom |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | AO3 Post |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
AO3 Ship Stats 2021 is part of the AO3 Ship Stats project by centrumlumina.
This marked this first year that a new breakdown of race category was used, with centrumlumina opting to list different racial groups instead of the catch all "POC" label used in previous years.
Overall Top 20
The top 20 pairings on AO3 as of August 2021. See the rest of the results on AO3.
Top 20 in 2021
Top 20 pairings that produced the most fanworks in 2021.
| No. | Pairing | Canon | Type | Race | New Works | Total | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dream/GeorgeNotFound | Youtube RPF | M/M | White/White | 13472 | 13472 | NEW |
| 2 | Castiel/Dean Winchester | Supernatural | M/M | White/White | 12086 | 96616 |  14
|
| 3 | Lan Zhan/Wei Ying | Mo Dao Zu Shi | M/M | Asian/Asian | 10848 | 23825 |  1
|
| 4 | Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter | Harry Potter | M/M | White/White | 9069 | 49245 | 2
|
| 5 | Katsuki Bakugou/Midoriya Izuku | My Hero Academia | M/M | Asian/Asian | 8567 | 25351 | 2
|
| 6 | Aziraphale/Crowley | Good Omens | M/M | White/White | 8410 | 36546 | 5
|
| 7 | Kirishima Eijiro/Bakugou Katsuki | My Hero Academia | M/M | Asian/Asian | 7324 | 22607 | 3
|
| 8 | Sirius Black/Remus Lupin | Harry Potter | M/M | White/White | 7231 | 24891 | 23
|
| 9 | Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson | Youtube RPF | Gen | White/White | 6910 | 6910 | NEW |
| 10 | Tubbo & TommyInnit | Youtube RPF | Gen | White/White | 6870 | 6870 | NEW |
| 11 | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | The Witcher | M/M | White/White | 6401 | 13917 | 6
|
| 12 | Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit | Youtube RPF | Gen | White/White | 6247 | 6247 | NEW |
| 13 | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Miraculous Ladybug | F/M | White/Asian | 6103 | 25668 | 1
|
| 14 | Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers | The Avengers | M/M | White/White | 5643 | 55252 | 5
|
| 15 | Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou | Haikyuu!! | M/M | Asian/Asian | 5379 | 12789 | 25
|
| 16 | Aizawa Shouta/Yamada Hizashi | My Hero Academia | M/M | Asian/Asian | 5334 | 12591 | 6
|
| 17 | Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru | Haikyuu!! | M/M | Asian/Asian | 5324 | 16455 | 28
|
| 18 | Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi | Haikyuu!! | M/M | Asian/Asian | 5277 | 6001 | NEW |
| 19 | Jeon Jungkook/Kim Taehyung | BTS | M/M | Asian/Asian | 5201 | 28479 | 6
|
| 20 | James Potter/Lily Evans Potter | Harry Potter | F/M | White/White | 5057 | 15164 | 33
|
For a list of all 100 ships, see here or on AO3.
Overall Top 20 Femslash
The top 20 femslash pairings on AO3 as of August 2021. See the rest of the results on AO3.
Responses
Meta and Media Coverage
- Misha Collins Tweeted About Destiel Fanfiction, And The Sound You Hear Is All Of Tumblr Screaming by Kelly Martinez at Buzzfeed
- We should talk about f/f by fandomshatelgbtqpeople
Comments
[eyeroll]
Of the 200 names on the list, 25 belong to women and 3 to characters of indeterminate gender, down from 26 and 3 respectively in the 2020 list. In total there are 134 white characters, 53 Asian characters, 6 Latino characters, and 1 Black character, along with 7 characters of ambiguous race. There are 59 total Characters of Colour, up from 52 in 2020.
I do fandom for fun. I have absolutely no obligation to ~examine my preferences~ and write what you think I should.
[centreoftheselights]
I didn't say anything here about examining your preferences or changing what you write. Sounds like you're projecting. 💗[1]
[peachpoetry]
thanks for including racial stats. really puts stuff into perspective, especially the fact that the only black character is literally part of the least popular pairing on the all time list.[2]
[iSpitonFire]
I'm thrilled and fascinated by this and even more thrilled and fascinated that Misha Collins linked this on his twitter thank you[3]
[tree]
i always love looking at the ship stats per year and wow these are so interesting! SO many of the dream smp guys! i always like looking at what fandoms/ships suddenly get popular. (btw, what's with all this increased interest in harry potter ships??)
as always, it's disappointing to see such a lack of diversity... the consistent lack of f/f ships is a real shame. i've noticed that the f/f ships on these lists are generally canon yet the m/m ships are generally not. i wonder how much that has to say about 1) the lack of female characters in media (esp those that aren't love interests for male characters), 2) fandom's willingness to ship male characters together (who might not have even met in canon!) vs female characters and 3) the way in which we're primed to sympathise with male characters over female characters. there's also the sad truth that the majority of canon LGBTQ ships are m/m, not f/f. i very often see people say that the straight female fanfic readers are just less interested in lesbian ships than gay ones, but i really do think it's partly due to the extreme lack of lesbian ships compared to gay ones.
i'm also so disappointed to see — if i'm correct — only ONE black character here (sam wilson)? that's just... seriously. ONE. of course there's a problem with a lack of black characters in media, as well as the storylines black characters are written into (like just being the white protagonist's best friend). but i do also wonder how much of this is fandom's willingness to sympathise with white characters over black ones, even subconsciously.
likewise, i'm quite disappointed that many of the asian characters here are 1) kpop idols, and thus real people instead of characters or 2) anime characters, and thus derived from asian forms of media instead of western. it's saddening that when you look ONLY at asian characters from western shows, there's a huge lack of representation.
of course this isn't me complaining about your data! this is just me disappointed in the lack of diversity the data shows. fans are pretty much destined to go crazy over canon ships, so i just wish more of those included f/f ships, or ships involving more characters of colour, etc etc.[4]
References
- ^ eyeroll (Anonymous), Comment on AO3 Ship Stats 2021, 01 August 2021. Reply by centreoftheselights, 01 August 2021.
- ^ peachpoetry, Comment on AO3 Ship Stats 2021, 03 August 2021.
- ^ iSpitonFire, Comment on AO3 Ship Stats 2021, 03 August 2021.
- ^ tree (Anonymous), Comment on AO3 Ship Stats 2021, 16 August 2021.