High-level stats for week of 2019-09-17 - 2019-09-23
- Total works categorized F/F on AO3: 4024 (+24 from last week)
- Works I classified F/F: 2368 (-7 from last week) (1037 new, 1331 continued)
- 0.84% of all 281295 AO3 works I've classified F/F were updated this week

A few callouts this week:
- Apparently my negativity about Life Is Strange was entirely unwarranted; it seems to be doing just fine.
- I rather liked this canon-divergent Hermione/Pansy fic. Also here's Petunia/Trelawney from the Femflash Sep 2019 exchange, which a reader brought to my attention.
Most active classified fandoms:
| Rank | Fandom (and top three ships) | Rating for week | F/F works updated this week | % of F/F works updated this week | F/F:M/M ratio (all works) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Supergirl (TV 2015) Kara Danvers,Lena Luthor (140) Alex Danvers,Kara Danvers (32) Alex Danvers,Maggie Sawyer (31) | 52.80 | 185 (-2) | 1.04% | 28:1 |
| 2 | RWBY Blake Belladonna,Yang Xiao Long (38) Ruby Rose (RWBY),Weiss Schnee (26) Weiss Schnee,Yang Xiao Long (9) | 34.85 | 83 (-26) | 1.31% | 5:1 |
| 3 (↑) | Steven Universe (Cartoon) Pink Diamond's Pearl (Steven Universe),Spinel (Steven Universe) (12) Lapis Lazuli (Steven Universe),Peridot (Steven Universe) (11) Blue Diamond (Steven Universe),Yellow Diamond (Steven Universe) (9) | 33.47 | 56 (+9) | 0.98% | 14:1 |
| 4 (↓) | Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Bellatrix Black Lestrange,Hermione Granger (11) Ginny Weasley,Luna Lovegood (10) Hermione Granger,Pansy Parkinson (8) | 24.18 | 69 (-8) | 1.02% | 1:8 |
| 5 (↑6) | BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game) Hazawa Tsugumi,Hikawa Sayo (4) Hanazono Tae,Yamabuki Saaya (BanG Dream!) (3) ... | 21.66 | 27 (+8) | 2.08% | 416:1 |
| 6 (↑3) | Once Upon a Time (TV) Emma Swan,Evil Queen | Regina Mills (70) Alice | Tilly,Robin | Margot (3) Dorothy Gale (Once Upon a Time),Red Riding Hood | Ruby (3) Evil Queen | Regina Mills,Maleficent (Once Upon a Time) (3) | 21.24 | 82 (+9) | 0.64% | 9:1 |
| 7 (↑) | Marvel Cinematic Universe Maria Hill,Natasha Romanov (Marvel) (17) Brunnhilde | Valkyrie (Marvel),Carol Danvers (10) Natasha Romanov (Marvel),Wanda Maximoff (8) | 20.12 | 69 (+5) | 0.85% | 1:8 |
| 8 (↑4) | Overwatch (Video Game) Angela "Mercy" Ziegler,Fareeha "Pharah" Amari (12) Emily (Overwatch),Lena "Tracer" Oxton (7) Lena "Tracer" Oxton,Widowmaker | Amélie Lacroix (6) | 19.99 | 32 (+7) | 0.55% | 1:2 |
| 9 (↑10) | 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia Jirou Kyouka,Yaoyorozu Momo (39) Asui Tsuyu,Uraraka Ochako (32) Ashido Mina,Uraraka Ochako (7) | 17.79 | 73 (+5) | 2.41% | 1:8 |
| 10 (↑4) | Life Is Strange (Video Game) Chloe Price (Life Is Strange),Maxine "Max" Caulfield (23) Chloe Price (Life Is Strange),Rachel Amber (12) Maxine "Max" Caulfield,Victoria Chase (Life is Strange) (6) | 17.44 | 35 (+4) | 1.11% | 8:1 |
| 11 (⇑) | Homestuck Kanaya Maryam,Rose Lalonde (17) Jane Crocker,Roxy Lalonde (5) Terezi Pyrope,Vriska Serket (4) | 16.84 | 29 (+6) | 0.50% | 1:3 |
| 12 (↑) | She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Adora (She-Ra),Catra (She-Ra) (35) Adora (She-Ra),Glimmer (She-Ra) (4) Catra (She-Ra),Scorpia (She-Ra) (3) | 15.17 | 39 (-6) | 2.38% | 23:1 |
| 13 (↑5) | Wynonna Earp (TV) Nicole Haught,Waverly Earp (43) Nicole Haught,Wynonna Earp (13) Waverly Earp,Wynonna Earp (9) | 14.82 | 48 (-9) | 1.33% | 24:1 |
| 14 (⇑) | Love Live! Sunshine!! Sakurauchi Riko,Tsushima Yoshiko (4) Takami Chika,Watanabe You (4) Sakurauchi Riko,Takami Chika (3) | 14.68 | 18 (+9) | 0.90% | 218:1 |
| 15 (↓5) | Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types Akamatsu Kaede,Harukawa Maki (3) Akamatsu Kaede,Iruma Miu (3) Akamatsu Kaede,Shirogane Tsumugi (3) Celestia Ludenberg,Kirigiri Kyouko (3) Mioda Ibuki,Tsumiki Mikan (3) | 13.77 | 23 (-3) | 1.18% | 1:3 |
| 16 (↓11) | The 100 (TV) Clarke Griffin,Lexa (The 100) (57) Anya (The 100),Raven Reyes (8) Echo (The 100),Raven Reyes (3) | 13.55 | 63 (-7) | 0.54% | 5:1 |
| 17 (⇑) | The Originals (TV) Josie Saltzman,Penelope Park (21) Hope Mikaelson,Lizzie Saltzman (13) Hope Mikaelson,Josie Saltzman (5) | 13.50 | 27 (-15) | 2.09% | 1:1.1 |
| 18 (↓11) | A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin Margaery Tyrell,Sansa Stark (10) Daenerys Targaryen,Sansa Stark (7) ... | 13.00 | 31 (-16) | 1.27% | 1:1.8 |
| 19 (↓4) | Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses Hilda Valentine Goneril,Marianne von Edmund (11) Catherine (Fire Emblem),Shamir Nevrand (8) Dorothea Arnault,Petra Macneary (8) | 12.87 | 47 (+0) | 20.26% | 1:2 |
| 20 (⇑) | The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare Clary Fray,Isabelle Lightwood (9) Isabelle Lightwood,Maia Roberts (5) Aline Penhallow,Helen Blackthorn (4) | 12.64 | 24 (-7) | 1.20% | 1:11 |
What is all this again?
Mission statement: help out people (including myself) who read fic on AO3 and wish they were reading more femslash, but don't know what's out there. Plan: do a week-in-review post every week which contains general stats about new fic and a few recs.
I am starting with the list of all works on ao3.org which were updated within a given week, and which were categorized as F/F, but I am not reporting stats on 100% of those works --- I'm narrowing down to a subset of fandoms and works for which it's tractable for me to actually look at all the character tags, and then I'm excluding ships containing what I believe to be cis-male characters. I'll give overall stats about how many works I've reported on and how many I've excluded. If you think I'm excluding a fandom you care about, please let me know!
More info about column headers:
- Fandom (and top three ships): If multiple tags that seem to correspond to the same fandom (e.g. "The 100 (TV)" and "The 100 Series - Kass Morgan") show up in my ranking, I report the one with the best rating. There's totally a judgment call here about what things are "the same fandom" --- I'm going to err on the side of reporting more different things when I can, but I won't skip something with a lot of works which aren't otherwise accounted for. When measuring the top three F/F ships in a fandom, I count both "A/B" and "A & B" as "A,B". Ties are broken by including all of the ships, but I only include a maximum of five ships per fandom to keep the table length reasonable.
- Rating for week: I like fandoms with ensemble casts, so I'm doing a weighted sum based on the logarithm of number of works by pairing, so that fandoms with several different F/F pairings get a significant bonus.
- F/F/ works updated this week: includes both new and continued works.
- % of F/F works updated this week: This is the percentage of all F/F works I've ever categorized in the fandom, so a big number probably means a brand new fandom, or at least one which was unusually active this week.
- F/F:M/M ratio (all works): This ratio is taken from all works in the fandom tag, and is just a hint to readers about how F/F-dominant the fandom is. Obviously there's no reason you can't find great F/F works in a predominantly male fandom (we've all read those), but the ratio may give a hint about whether the F/F pairing is likely to be the dominant one in a work with multiple pairings. Note that the "F/F" and "M/M" numbers for this column are taken directly from AO3, not from my compiled character and ship stats. (Since I don't categorize M/M works, I couldn't do it any other way.)
Known bugs which affect the accuracy of this data:
- AO3 does not modify the "last updated" date of a work in a revealed exchange when the exchange reveals, so my database can miss exchange works entirely if they're last edited awhile before the exchange works are revealed. This probably leads to a serious undercount of works in revealed exchanges.
- When canonical names for characters and ships change over time, my database can wind up containing entries for both ships. This makes ratings inaccurate.
Share and enjoy, and let me know what I can do to make this more useful.