Very Basic Growth Rate Stats: Stargate Atlantis and other fandoms.

[icarus]

How does Stargate Atlantis rate in online popularity?

We can use fanfiction as a benchmark for how popular the Stargate Atlantis fandom is compared to other fandoms. My statistics are taken from fanfiction.net, the largest fanfiction online archive*, which receives 9,700,000 impressions per day according to Alexa. As of June 25th, 2007, fanfiction.net was the 193rd most popular site on the Internet, drawing more traffic than MSNBC. Actually, a lot more traffic than MSNBC.

Fanfiction is a huge online draw. Therefore it can be used as a general measure of the online popularity of a show.

The number of stories measures the level of activity in the fandom. This reflects the number of readers, rather than writers, believe it or not. As one writer receives a ton of comments, other writers follow the money -- er, reviews -- and the fanfiction dynamo kicks off.

*(Caveat: fanfiction.net does not allow explicit NC-17 stories, so the numbers of actual fanfics out there is much higher, an estimated 30% more. Needless to say, the porn is an even bigger draw. Most of the NC-17 fiction is housed on Livejournal.com, the 63rd most popular site.)

A fandom requires three elements:

1) Active Viewers who are familiar with the show. Fanfiction does not explain or repeat what is known from the show. Fanfic, for example, don't explain what a stargate does or what a "puddlejumper" is.

2) Active Writers (and Artists and Vidders). Usually there is a core of "Big Name Fans" who have written for many shows and popularize the fanfiction for a new show. Working alongside them will be organizers who run (and pay for) archives, story challenge communities, and newsletters that promote the fanfiction, as well as the all-important readers who sift the wheat from the chaff and maintain recommendations lists that anthologize the good stories.

3) Active Readers who send praise and online comments -- called "reviews" -- to the writers. These readers demand more stories which starts up a dynamo. Reviews are the coin of the realm. Getting more reviews for a story is bit like getting paid more for your work. Writers don't like to admit it but they do follow the readers. As the reviews and "pay-off" increases, the top drawer writers are drawn in and the quality of the stories goes up as well.

Comparing the two Stargates:

Stargate Atlantis (after 3 years, about 2,890 per year): 8,669
Stargate SG-1 (after 10 years, about 1,621 per year): 16,211

SGA's early surge of popularity far outstripped SG-1 fanfiction. While SGA's discovery by fanfiction writers can be contributed to a springboard effect, that doesn't explain why SGA has nearly double the number of fanfiction stories per year.

This is significant. If Stargate Atlantis continues at this clip for seven years, it could pass 20,000 stories and be ranked in the top five mainstream fanfiction communities alongside the Lord of the Rings and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm writing a synopsis of that first year examining why the wacky SGA fanfiction drew so many writers and readers.

Stargate Atlantis compared to the three hottest new shows:

Supernatural (after 2 years, about 4,954 per year): 9,908
Stargate Atlantis (after 3 years, about 2,890 per year): 8,669
Dr. Who (after 3 years, about 2,482 per year): 7,448
Battlestar Galactica 2003 (after 4 years, about 580 per year): 2,319

Stargate Atlantis is on a par with the two hottest new fandoms today: the skyrocketing Supernatural, and Dr. Who. Supernatural's growth rate is astounding. It looks like it could be the next X-files. Battlestar Galactica, despite the quality of the show (or perhaps because of it) has not created a large body of fanfiction readers.

Stargate Atlantis compared to the three biggest mainstream fanfiction communities:

Harry Potter (after 10 years, about 30,965 per year): 309,650
Lord of the Rings (after 10 years since fanfiction.net launched, about 4,012 per year): 40,121
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (after 7 years, about 4,480 per year): 31,364

Stargate Atlantis (after 3 years, about 2,890 per year): 8,669

No fandom is as large as the King Kong of fandoms, Harry Potter. Lord of the Rings and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are a distant second and third, though they have nearly twice the number of fics found in the next largest fandoms.

Less familiar to most people are the powerhouse Anime fandoms, which I distinguish from the "mainstream" fandoms:

Naruto: 90,972
Yu-Gi-Oh: 42,233
Digimon: 28,743
Dragon Ball Z: 28,266
Sailor Moon: 24,693
Fullmetal Alchemist: 19,003
Ruroun Kenshin: 14,704

Stargate Atlantis (after 3 years, about 2,890 per year): 8,669

The Anime fandoms have a reputation for drawing a younger readership with greater numbers of young male readers. According several surveys, the typical ratio of male to female readers ranges from 85-90% women, 15-10% men.

Stargate Atlantis compared to the mid-range mainstream fandoms:

CSI (after 7 years, about 2428 per year): 17,000
Stargate SG-1 (after 10 years, about 1,621 per year): 16,211
Gilmore Girls (after 6 years, about 2,053 per year): 12,322
House, M.D. (3 years, about 2,280): 6,840
**X-Files (after 9 years, about 726 per year): 6,536

Stargate Atlantis (after 3 years, about 2,890 per year): 8,669

Stargate SG-1 is a mid-range fandom. Stargate Atlantis, if it keeps its early momentum, will surpass all of these.

**Note: The X-Files is a much larger fandom than these numbers indicate. The figures here are low due to the fact that fanfiction.net did not launch until the late 1990s, years after the X-Files began. Most of the early X-Files fanfiction was shared through other means. Likewise, the early Star Trek fanfiction is not housed on fanfiction.net and was mostly shared through printed Zines. Shows like Stargate SG-1, which started at the same time as fanfiction.net or later, can be sampled via fanfiction.net.

How does Stargate Atlantis compare to small fandoms?

West Wing (after 7 years, about 580 per year): 4,060
Friends (after 7 years, about 452 per year): 3,165
Farscape (after 5 years, about 351 per year): 1,759

Stargate Atlantis (after 3 years, about 2,890 per year): 8,669

Small fandoms have communities and primary authors, though often the authors "main fandoms" will be elsewhere.

Compare Stargate Atlantis to the micro fandoms:

Law and Order: 738
Jane Austen: 691
Shakespeare: 294
Profiler: 288

Stargate Atlantis (after 3 years, about 2,890 per year): 8,669

At the farthest end of the spectrum are the "micro fandoms." These are too small to have an active community of readers and are not self-sustaining. Writers create stories for them out of love for the work alone and usually have other fandoms that are their "bread and butter." The readership is the random stray reviewer.

Online popularity of course is no measure of quality, or the popularity outside of the online community. No one has figured out the magic formula that draws readers to seek more from their fandom in fanfiction stories. And some shows and books don't invite fanfiction just because they're difficult, or so highbrow they don't have a readership. For example, one of the micro fandoms is based on the works of William Shakespeare. I guess fanfiction writers don't have the gall. :D

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/oceana_/]

Interesting, but I'm not sure how accurate it is. ff.net does not house much slash. SGA, SG-1, and others have a huge slash following, which wouldn't be represented in these numbers. I have no doubt though that there is more SGA slash than SG-1 slash, at least in comparison to the time it has been around.

I also think that the number of NC-17 stories is a lot higher than 30% more than what can be found in ff.net. Not that that would make a difference in the relations.

Very interesting, though. I think I'll have to ponder about why SGA is so much more popular than SG-1 now. Of course, I came to SG-1 rather late and there was almost no good fanfic out there. Now there's are so many great writers, who then all, or almost all, gave SGA a chance. SG-1 is a bit of a late bloomer for some reasons.
*ponders*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I think that SGA springboarded off of SG-1, so it had a good kick-off, but it's the total disregard for canon and popularity of crackfics (and reputation for being a lot of fun) that just pumped out an amazing number of stories.

I disagree with you about FF.net. It houses an enormous amount of slash, they're just not marked as such. And all of these fandoms have enormous slash followings, Harry Potter especially.

[http://users.livejournal.com/oceana_/]

Hmm, I admit that the only time I ever use ff.net is when I'm desperate, like when I try to find NCIS fiction. And of all the NCIS fic on ff.net, there are maybe 10 slash stories, so I assumed it would be the same with other fandoms. Seeing that I have almost never found anything good to read on ff.net either, I always assumed that it was a place for younger fans, and I'm fairly certain, though I admit that I have no proof of this, that younger HP fans (or fans of any other fandoms) are more likely to be het fans. And when I say young, I mean 11-14, which judging by the quality of the fic I have read on ff.net, seems to be the average age over there.
But that's my personal experience, which as I said, is mainly an experience in not so popular fandoms (I never even tried HP, SG-1, SGA or SPN on ff.net, because I know enough places where I can be sure to find good fic). And then there were my own beginnings in fandom, BTVS and Angel. For (four) weeks I read every story that was published in the BTVS section of ff.net. Not one of them was slash. And I read everything (and I mean literally everything) in that category. My slash relevation, which was at the same time the revelation of what good fanfic can be like, came a bit later, when I stumbled upon a Angel/Spike site when I was searching for Spike/Buffy fic (this was back in season 4, when Sipke/Buffy was still rare).
So, a limited experiences, but for me it shows a rather clear picture. But maybe there is hope that ff.net is not quite so devastating in other fandoms. Not that I am brave enough to find out.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I started reading ff.net in 2001 when I was getting into the Lord of the Rings fandom. I found a mix of slash and gen, but very little Lord of the Rings het, oddly enough (of course, there aren't many female characters in the book so...). I found the Library of Moria later and abandoned ff.net except for posting my own few stories.

In 2002, I hunted for stories in the Harry Potter fandom and a large portion of what I found on ff.net was slash. At the time slash was easier to find because people put "m/m slash - don't flame!" in the summary (people stopped that when it turned out to be a red flag for trolls). Some people complained about how much slash there was, but in a fandom that size -- even in 2002 there were 165,000 Harry Potter fics -- it's really hard to get a good bead on it. There was certainly no lack. Recently I've heard complaints that the HP fic on ff.net is overwhelmed by Harry/Draco slash.

As for the age of the writers, wow, I found some truly poor quality Merry/Pippin slash stories there. In fact, that's part of what convinced me to write -- it would be hard to be much worse. *laughs* But I've discovered that adults too can be terrible writers with no concept of spelling or capitalization. One writer I pegged as a teenager turned out to be in her 30s -- who knew?

I was able to navigate through the morass of ff.net fics by following the favorites lists of those who left me intelligent, well-worded reviews. I discovered MartianHouseCat (who gave me the code for this LJ), switchknife, mctabby, dien and others with consistently good stories. All slash, including some very interesting pairings like Snape/Dumbledore (don't scream, it was brilliant). A few years later, 2005, I was looking for Percy fics (a much smaller sampling) and a good portion of them were slash.

I outgrew ff.net a long time ago, so I've never tried to find Stargate SG-1 or Stargate Atlantis slash stories there. However, I know they exist because I upload my own. :)

Icarus