High-level stats for week of 2020-04-21 - 2020-04-27
- Total works categorized F/F on AO3: 5997 (+122 from last week)
- Works I classified F/F: 3620 (+100 from last week) (1730 new, 1890 continued)
- 1.12% of all 322559 AO3 works I've classified F/F were updated this week

A few callouts this week:
- And up it goes. The Harry Potter resurgence is impressive; the baseline seems to be that about 1% of F/F works are updated (meaning either created or updated) in any given week, but given the number of works in the fandom, jumping to close to 2% seems like no mean feat. I imagine a lot of that growth is in multiship works where the F/F ship is a secondary pairing, but I don't have that data immediately to hand. Anyway. Stay safe, and keep reading femslash!
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 (158) Alex Danvers,Maggie Sawyer (33) Alex Danvers,Kara Danvers (25) | 55.90 | 215 (-19) | 1.02% | 29:1 |
| 2 (↑) | Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Ginny Weasley,Luna Lovegood (27) Bellatrix Black Lestrange,Hermione Granger (23) Hermione Granger,Pansy Parkinson (18) | 46.11 | 137 (+20) | 1.72% | 1:8 |
| 3 (↓) | RWBY Blake Belladonna,Yang Xiao Long (71) Ruby Rose (RWBY),Weiss Schnee (48) Coco Adel,Velvet Scarlatina (10) | 45.40 | 138 (+20) | 1.75% | 4:1 |
| 4 (↑2) | Steven Universe (Cartoon) Lapis Lazuli (Steven Universe),Peridot (Steven Universe) (33) Ruby (Steven Universe),Sapphire (Steven Universe) (13) Pearl (Steven Universe),Rose Quartz (Steven Universe) (7) | 32.86 | 71 (+15) | 1.08% | 12:1 |
| 5 (↑9) | Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses Dorothea Arnault,Petra Macneary (13) Hilda Valentine Goneril,Marianne von Edmund (13) Dorothea Arnault,Edelgard von Hresvelg (8) | 27.00 | 67 (+6) | 4.93% | 1:2 |
| 6 (↑4) | Marvel Cinematic Universe Natasha Romanov (Marvel),Wanda Maximoff (12) Brunnhilde | Valkyrie (Marvel),Carol Danvers (8) Michelle Jones,Shuri (Marvel) (7) | 26.94 | 78 (-2) | 0.87% | 1:8 |
| 7 (↓3) | BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game) Hazawa Tsugumi,Hikawa Sayo (8) Hikawa Sayo,Imai Lisa (5) Imai Lisa,Minato Yukina (5) Matsubara Kanon,Okusawa Misaki (5) | 26.21 | 38 (-13) | 2.06% | 383:1 |
| 8 (⇑) | The Vampire Diaries (TV) Hope Mikaelson,Josie Saltzman (44) Hope Mikaelson,Lizzie Saltzman (38) Josie Saltzman,Penelope Park (26) | 25.23 | 93 (-8) | 4.05% | 1:1.9 |
| 9 (↓2) | The 100 (TV) Clarke Griffin,Lexa (The 100) (76) Anya (The 100),Raven Reyes (18) Costia (The 100),Lexa (The 100) (7) | 23.07 | 83 (-24) | 0.67% | 5:1 |
| 10 (↓) | Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types Chabashira Tenko,Yumeno Himiko (7) Koizumi Mahiru,Saionji Hiyoko (4) Mioda Ibuki,Tsumiki Mikan (4) | 22.59 | 36 (-1) | 1.47% | 1:3 |
| 11 (↑8) | Once Upon a Time (TV) Emma Swan,Evil Queen | Regina Mills (67) Belle (Once Upon a Time),Red Riding Hood | Ruby (5) Evil Queen | Regina Mills,Maleficent (Once Upon a Time) (3) | 20.18 | 78 (+11) | 0.57% | 9:1 |
| 12 (↓) | Doctor Who Thirteenth Doctor,Yasmin Khan (39) River Song,Thirteenth Doctor (10) Jenny Flint,Madame Vastra (Doctor Who) (4) | 19.69 | 64 (-8) | 1.51% | 1:1.3 |
| 13 (⇑) | She-Ra: Princess Of Power Adora (She-Ra),Catra (She-Ra) (42) Adora (She-Ra),Glimmer (She-Ra) (14) Catra (She-Ra),Scorpia (She-Ra) (13) | 18.03 | 51 (+9) | 1.90% | 9:1 |
| 14 (↓) | Overwatch (Video Game) Angela "Mercy" Ziegler,Fareeha "Pharah" Amari (11) Angela "Mercy" Ziegler,Moira O'Deorain (6) Lena "Tracer" Oxton,Widowmaker | Amélie Lacroix (3) | 17.98 | 29 (-5) | 0.46% | 1:2 |
| 15 (↑2) | 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia Jirou Kyouka,Yaoyorozu Momo (67) Asui Tsuyu,Uraraka Ochako (39) Ashido Mina,Uraraka Ochako (8) | 17.75 | 118 (+9) | 2.82% | 1:8 |
| 16 (↓4) | Dragon Age (Video Games) Female Warden (Dragon Age),Leliana (Dragon Age) (5) Female Hawke,Merrill (Dragon Age) (4) Female Inquisitor (Dragon Age),Josephine Montilyet (4) Leliana (Dragon Age),Warden (Dragon Age) (4) | 17.34 | 32 (+0) | 0.73% | 1:3 |
| 17 (⇑) | Life Is Strange (Video Game) Chloe Price (Life Is Strange),Maxine "Max" Caulfield (19) Chloe Price (Life Is Strange),Rachel Amber (10) Kate Marsh,Maxine "Max" Caulfield (4) | 16.61 | 30 (-2) | 0.85% | 8:1 |
| 18 (↓10) | Miraculous Ladybug Juleka Couffaine,Rose Lavillant (14) Kagami Tsurugi,Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug (10) Chloé Bourgeois,Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug (9) | 16.58 | 38 (-18) | 2.54% | 1.3:1 |
| 19 (⇑) | Arrow (TV 2012) Ava Sharpe,Sara Lance (29) Dinah Drake (Arrow),Earth-2 Laurel Lance (8) Nyssa al Ghul,Sara Lance (3) | 16.02 | 60 (+8) | 1.62% | 1:1.3 |
| 20 (⇑) | Little Witch Academia Atsuko "Akko" Kagari,Diana Cavendish (38) Croix Meridies,Ursula Callistis | Chariot du Nord (9) Amanda O'Neill,Hannah England (5) | 15.69 | 41 (+11) | 3.58% | 118:1 |
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.