Some time ago I read on these forums the claim that Gay Male story readers are mostly females. Now it's well known that the yaoi manga is mostly read by women, so maybe that's also the case for Gay Male? Well, spoiler: it's not so. However the number of females reading Gay Male stories is surprisingly high.
Anyway I did some work on this, checking out readers and authors.
To get an idea on readership of stories and categories, I looked at the registered users that marked a story Favorite, or that added a Comment to the story. Hereby the results.
1. Scores and hotness of categories.
The average rating of stories on the site is 4.20, the median score is 4.31, meaning half the stories on the site has a score 4.31 or better.
Average story score per category:
Lowest average rating: 3.90 in Illustrated.
Highest average rating: 4.47 in Novels and Novellas
Hotness of stories:
Hotness is the percentage of stories that reaches “Hot” status, i.e. a score of 4.50 or higher.
Of all the stories, 28.5% is “Hot”.
Coldest category: 5.2% “Hot” in Illustrated.
Hottest category: 62.5% “Hot” in Novels and Novellas.
2. Views and comments.
Average views per story per category.
Best read category: Illustrated with on average 328259 views per story.
This is a remarkable number, the second best read is Incest/Taboo with on average 123837 views per story, and the third is Text With Audio with on average 91126 views per story.
Worst read category: Novels and Novellas with on average 10131 views per story.
Average comments per story per category.
Category with lowest number of comments per story: Celebrities with 1.34 comments per story.
Second lowest: Erotic Couplings, 1.48 comments per story.
Third lowest: BDSM with 1.57 comments per story.
Fourth lowest: Group Sex with 1.59 comments per story.
Category with highest number of comments per story: Loving Wives with 12.8 comments per story.
Second highest: How To with 12.5 comments per story.
Third highest: Text With Audio with 12.3 comments per story.
Average number of views that results in a comment on a story per category.
Higher number means less likely to receive comments.
Most actively commenting readers: Non-Erotic with one comment per 1961 views.
Least active commenting readers: Illustrated with one comment per 33467 views.
Loving Wives is 7th with one comment per 5182 views.
3. Sex ratios of readers.
Sex ratio of readers per category. The percentage “Unknown” is the percentage of the total number of readers; the others are the percentage of those that did indicate their gender.
Overall sex ratios of readers.
57.3% male, 41.1% female, 0.8% couple, 0.8% transsexual.
Of the readers, 33.1% did not indicate their gender.
Interesting observations in sex ratios of readers.
Highest ratio of female readers: Non Human
17.1% male, 82.8% female (28% of the total readers gave no answer).
Highest ratio of male readers: Loving Wives.
88.1% male, 8.7% female (33.7% of the readers gave no answer).
Most secretive readers: Mind Control
79.6% male, 18.8% female. Of the total, 46.2% gave no answer for gender.
Does this have to do with the subject matter?
Sex ratio of readers of Gay Male:
54% male, 42.8% female.
This is very close to the site average, going against the expected higher number of female readers (Japanese yaoi manga is known to have a primarily female readership).
Sex ratio of readers of Lesbian Sex (one could call that Gay Female as well of course):
51.4% male, 46.7% female.
Again very close the the site average.
4. Sexual orientation of readers.
This only uses the information from readers that indicate both their gender and their sexual orientation.
Overall sexual orientations:
Males: 86.4% straight, 2.1% gay, 11.4% bi.
Females: 70.1% straight, 2.5% gay, 27.5% bi.
The high number of bisexual females stands out. This gives weight to the typical male fantasy of “all women are bisexual”.
Results for selected categories:
Gay Male:
Males: 13.7% straight, 36.3% gay, 50% bi.
Ratios are not very surprising, with a very strong skew towards gay males and a lesser skew towards bisexual males reading Gay Male stories.
Females: 66.7% straight, 1% gay, 32.4% bi.
These ratios are very close to the overall ratios of the sexual orientation of females on this site. There seems to be no relationship between sexual orientation of a female and her interest in Gay Male stories, except the lowish ratio of gay women.
Lesbian Sex:
Same story as Gay Male but with the genders swapped.
Males: 85% straight, 15% bi, which is close to the site average. No gay males found among the readership, apparently gay males really don't like women.
Females: 9.4% straight, 38.1% gay, 52.5% bi.
Really almost the exact same story as for males reading Gay Male stories. Straight women just don't like fantasising about doing it with another woman.
5. Overall sex ratios authors.
58.8% male
39.1% female
1.02% couple
1.09% transsexual
Of the total number of authors, 10.9% did not indicate their gender.
This ratio is very close to the sex ratio of readers. With the large number of users not indicating their gender and errors due to this being just a sample of the site, one should consider them equal.
Interesting observations in sex ratios of authors.
Highest ratio of female authors: Non Human
26.3% male, 73.7% female (8.3% overall gave no answer).
Also the category with the highest ratio of female readers, though the authors sex ratio less skewed.
Highest ratio of male authors: Gay Male
81.8% male, 16.4% female.
Very different from the sex ratio of this category's readers, which has slightly more females than the site average.
Gender ratio of authors of Lesbian Sex stories:
31.2% male, 68.8% female (11.7% overall gave no answer)
Like Gay Male this is also in strong contrast to the sex ratio of the readership.
Gender ratio of authors of Loving Wives stories:
79.9% male, 12.1% female, 8.1% couple.
Interesting is how many “couple” authors there are in this category. Also notable is how many more female authors there are in this category than female readers, especially if you add the female half of the “couple” too.
Text with Audio is second for ratio of couples as author: 5.9% indicate they're a couple.
6. Sexual orientation of authors.
This only uses the information from authors that indicated both their gender and their sexual orientation. The results:
Males: 86.4% straight, 2.1% gay, 11.4% bi.
Females: 70.1% straight, 2.5% gay, 27.5% bi.
These numbers are virtually identical to the overall readership numbers.
Results for selected categories:
The sexual orientation of the authors and readers of the two gay categories closely matches the orientations of their respective readers, even though the gender ratio is very different between readers and authors.
Gay Male:
Males: 19% straight, 28% gay, 53% bi.
Females: 68% straight, 32% bi.
Both are very close to the sexual orientations of the readerships of these categories.
Lesbian Sex:
Males: 72% straight, 28% bi. Interesting is the relatively high ratio of bisexual male authors of Lesbian Sex stories.
Females: 14% straight, 36% gay, 51% bi. Pretty much identical to the sexual orientation of the readers of these stories.
If you have any other ideas of potential intersting statistics let me know and I will try to create them. Note that the above is likely to contain errors, and is for entertainment only. No serious weight should be given to this information.
Anyway I did some work on this, checking out readers and authors.
To get an idea on readership of stories and categories, I looked at the registered users that marked a story Favorite, or that added a Comment to the story. Hereby the results.
1. Scores and hotness of categories.
The average rating of stories on the site is 4.20, the median score is 4.31, meaning half the stories on the site has a score 4.31 or better.
Average story score per category:
Lowest average rating: 3.90 in Illustrated.
Highest average rating: 4.47 in Novels and Novellas
Hotness of stories:
Hotness is the percentage of stories that reaches “Hot” status, i.e. a score of 4.50 or higher.
Of all the stories, 28.5% is “Hot”.
Coldest category: 5.2% “Hot” in Illustrated.
Hottest category: 62.5% “Hot” in Novels and Novellas.
2. Views and comments.
Average views per story per category.
Best read category: Illustrated with on average 328259 views per story.
This is a remarkable number, the second best read is Incest/Taboo with on average 123837 views per story, and the third is Text With Audio with on average 91126 views per story.
Worst read category: Novels and Novellas with on average 10131 views per story.
Average comments per story per category.
Category with lowest number of comments per story: Celebrities with 1.34 comments per story.
Second lowest: Erotic Couplings, 1.48 comments per story.
Third lowest: BDSM with 1.57 comments per story.
Fourth lowest: Group Sex with 1.59 comments per story.
Category with highest number of comments per story: Loving Wives with 12.8 comments per story.
Second highest: How To with 12.5 comments per story.
Third highest: Text With Audio with 12.3 comments per story.
Average number of views that results in a comment on a story per category.
Higher number means less likely to receive comments.
Most actively commenting readers: Non-Erotic with one comment per 1961 views.
Least active commenting readers: Illustrated with one comment per 33467 views.
Loving Wives is 7th with one comment per 5182 views.
3. Sex ratios of readers.
Sex ratio of readers per category. The percentage “Unknown” is the percentage of the total number of readers; the others are the percentage of those that did indicate their gender.
Overall sex ratios of readers.
57.3% male, 41.1% female, 0.8% couple, 0.8% transsexual.
Of the readers, 33.1% did not indicate their gender.
Interesting observations in sex ratios of readers.
Highest ratio of female readers: Non Human
17.1% male, 82.8% female (28% of the total readers gave no answer).
Highest ratio of male readers: Loving Wives.
88.1% male, 8.7% female (33.7% of the readers gave no answer).
Most secretive readers: Mind Control
79.6% male, 18.8% female. Of the total, 46.2% gave no answer for gender.
Does this have to do with the subject matter?
Sex ratio of readers of Gay Male:
54% male, 42.8% female.
This is very close to the site average, going against the expected higher number of female readers (Japanese yaoi manga is known to have a primarily female readership).
Sex ratio of readers of Lesbian Sex (one could call that Gay Female as well of course):
51.4% male, 46.7% female.
Again very close the the site average.
4. Sexual orientation of readers.
This only uses the information from readers that indicate both their gender and their sexual orientation.
Overall sexual orientations:
Males: 86.4% straight, 2.1% gay, 11.4% bi.
Females: 70.1% straight, 2.5% gay, 27.5% bi.
The high number of bisexual females stands out. This gives weight to the typical male fantasy of “all women are bisexual”.
Results for selected categories:
Gay Male:
Males: 13.7% straight, 36.3% gay, 50% bi.
Ratios are not very surprising, with a very strong skew towards gay males and a lesser skew towards bisexual males reading Gay Male stories.
Females: 66.7% straight, 1% gay, 32.4% bi.
These ratios are very close to the overall ratios of the sexual orientation of females on this site. There seems to be no relationship between sexual orientation of a female and her interest in Gay Male stories, except the lowish ratio of gay women.
Lesbian Sex:
Same story as Gay Male but with the genders swapped.
Males: 85% straight, 15% bi, which is close to the site average. No gay males found among the readership, apparently gay males really don't like women.
Females: 9.4% straight, 38.1% gay, 52.5% bi.
Really almost the exact same story as for males reading Gay Male stories. Straight women just don't like fantasising about doing it with another woman.
5. Overall sex ratios authors.
58.8% male
39.1% female
1.02% couple
1.09% transsexual
Of the total number of authors, 10.9% did not indicate their gender.
This ratio is very close to the sex ratio of readers. With the large number of users not indicating their gender and errors due to this being just a sample of the site, one should consider them equal.
Interesting observations in sex ratios of authors.
Highest ratio of female authors: Non Human
26.3% male, 73.7% female (8.3% overall gave no answer).
Also the category with the highest ratio of female readers, though the authors sex ratio less skewed.
Highest ratio of male authors: Gay Male
81.8% male, 16.4% female.
Very different from the sex ratio of this category's readers, which has slightly more females than the site average.
Gender ratio of authors of Lesbian Sex stories:
31.2% male, 68.8% female (11.7% overall gave no answer)
Like Gay Male this is also in strong contrast to the sex ratio of the readership.
Gender ratio of authors of Loving Wives stories:
79.9% male, 12.1% female, 8.1% couple.
Interesting is how many “couple” authors there are in this category. Also notable is how many more female authors there are in this category than female readers, especially if you add the female half of the “couple” too.
Text with Audio is second for ratio of couples as author: 5.9% indicate they're a couple.
6. Sexual orientation of authors.
This only uses the information from authors that indicated both their gender and their sexual orientation. The results:
Males: 86.4% straight, 2.1% gay, 11.4% bi.
Females: 70.1% straight, 2.5% gay, 27.5% bi.
These numbers are virtually identical to the overall readership numbers.
Results for selected categories:
The sexual orientation of the authors and readers of the two gay categories closely matches the orientations of their respective readers, even though the gender ratio is very different between readers and authors.
Gay Male:
Males: 19% straight, 28% gay, 53% bi.
Females: 68% straight, 32% bi.
Both are very close to the sexual orientations of the readerships of these categories.
Lesbian Sex:
Males: 72% straight, 28% bi. Interesting is the relatively high ratio of bisexual male authors of Lesbian Sex stories.
Females: 14% straight, 36% gay, 51% bi. Pretty much identical to the sexual orientation of the readers of these stories.
If you have any other ideas of potential intersting statistics let me know and I will try to create them. Note that the above is likely to contain errors, and is for entertainment only. No serious weight should be given to this information.
