Views

[Cagivagurl]

My belief is... It is a combination of many things.
- The sheer number of stories available on the site
- The growing availability and use of AI to produce exactly what you want
- Times have moved on, if you're looking for exotic porn there are billions of them on the internet... No need to read, you can see it for free.
- Younger audience that has grown up using the internet... Books, or written material not in their sphere of interest.

I think you have to get used to the fact. Fewer readers visit the site, and their options for material are bigger than ever...
It is what it is...

If you write for fun, the question is... Does it matter. If you enjoy the process, then all is well...
If you're doing it to build some miraculous pool of fans, maybe consider making porn videos instead...

 

[Qky75]

That's a part of it. But I'd also say that it was the time when Lit was THE place for erotic stories, for readers and writers both. A time when no decent smut writer could envision not writing on Lit, along with whatever commercial setup they had. Lit is definitely not that place anymore, and I think one of the reasons for that is Lit's refusal to change, to evolve in any meaningful way.

For some, the fact that Lit is exactly the same as it was twenty years ago is likely a sign of consistency. It might feel reassuring to some, but I don't see it as a good thing.

I agree with your observations but I worry once the doors finally close. There is no place doing anything quite like this. I want changes sure. I just wonder if there's a way to change the bath water without tossing the baby as well.

 

[NotWise]

Not sure how you guys are formulating your opinions.

I track my statistics longitudinally. It would be possible to estimate aggregate stats for my catalog back to 2017, but I'm not sure the result is worth the effort. Whatever pattern you see is likely to be different from what I see.

The viewing rate on individual stories declines over time. It can take months for the viewing rate to descend into its long-term pattern.

The aggregate viewing rate on your catalog will be very dependent on how often you publish stories. If you take a long break, your aggregate viewing rate may nearly disappear. If you start publishing at a higher frequency, then your aggregate viewing rate will increase.

That is consistent with long-standing advice on AH, that if you want more eyes on your stories then you should publish more.

It also follows that if you publish a particularly popular piece, then the viewing rate across your catalog will go up. If you publish a series of less popular stories (including subsequent parts of a single story), then your viewing rate will go down.

The number of stories/day published by Lit peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic. It stayed very high for a while and has since gradually declined. I suspect that traffic to the site has followed a similar pattern, but probably not in exact proportion.

I looked up Lit's traffic count. The free example only goes back to last winter, but it shows a peak last winter at about 60M/month and a non-monotonic decline since to about 40M/month. Those are hits on the entire domain, not on stories. Is it seasonally cyclic? Possibly. Is it real? I doubt it. I also don't know how that would translate to views on your stories.

 

[SimonDoom]

There was likely a golden age of Lit's popularity like ten years ago or so, but it's long past now. It's truly commendable that Lit is trying to stay AI-free, but I think they need to make further changes to their approach and try to use their image to become more exclusive, so to speak. And that means putting a stop to human-made slop. Just my thoughts.

Do you have data, such as site traffic data, to back this up? If not then you have no basis for saying this. According to one traffic monitoring site I saw in August 2026 Literotica had over 54 million visits and was ranked 765 in the world. That doesn't sound like a site whose golden age is over. To my knowledge it remains by FAR the most popular and heavily trafficked erotic story website on planet Earth.I agree with the second part of what you wrote. Literotica evolves at a glacial pace, and that's probably holding it back from even more success. But I'm not sure it's true that its best times are past.

The only metrics we seem to have are anecdotal memories of "what it was like when we joined"; what we're like now as a writer, having gathered a following; and for those who are obsessive, a detailed annual analysis of story stats. But so far as I know, only the site has the data to really carry out the latter, and does anyone keep a tally of the total traffic volumes, year by year? I doubt it.

In addition to carefully (some might say obsessively) following my own story stats since the spring of 2017, I've also generally monitored the numbers on the toplists since then, especially the 12-month most viewed list, which lists the most-viewed stories that were published within the previous 12 months.

Back in 2018, and until last year, the top most-viewed story would typically have over 400,000 views, sometimes quite a bit more. A few years ago Lovecraft had a story that I think reached over 500,000 views in the first year.

Today, the top story on that list has about 229,000 views. Just a bit more than half.

In 2018, the 250th story on the list had about 115,000 views.

I observed that this number slowly began to decline, and has continued to do so. Today, the 250th most-viewed story published in the last 12 months has only 52,000 views. Less than half what it was 9 years ago.

I'm not aware that site traffic has taken a significant dip in the last 9 years. The increase in the number of stories published daily might have something to do with it. But the most likely explanation, given the data I've observed, is that the site counts views differently. It is weeding out "bot-driven" or other "phony" views, reducing view totals.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I agree with your observations but I worry once the doors finally close. There is no place doing anything quite like this. I want changes sure. I just wonder if there's a way to change the bath water without tossing the baby as well.

In this new world of AI content, I think that NOT adjusting course is going to end up being bad for the baby. Just look at what became of DeviantArt, for example. It's being smothered with AI stuff. There are so, so many guys SELLING, with some success even, what they generated with a fucking prompt. And yeah, that has to be impacting all the real artists there.
There were a couple of artists I loved there, but they simply disappeared. Most of the time it's just AI slop that I see there. Sure, there are some who had already made their name by the time the AI hit, and might still sell well, but imagine a budding artist? How the hell are they going to compete with all that, especially since there is no way for them to prove that their stuff is even legit? Everything can be copied and replicated.

 

[onehitwanda]

There have been several site "modernisations" that have hurt usability and discoverability. The most notable one is that only the most recent 10 new stories appear on the new stories list in each category's landing page; there are about 30 new stories in total in Lesbian Sex today - if you're not on that front page, your visibility is harmed.

That said, I think a significant number of views on older stories that predate these changes were due to scrapers. My most viewed story is from 2015 and has over 1M "views" - but only a little over 9000 votes. That's less than 1 vote per 100 views.

To contrast that, one of my new stories from march this year is coming in at nearly 1 vote every 20 views. I presume that's due to more "real" eyes on it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

That's a part of it. But I'd also say that it was the time when Lit was THE place for erotic stories, for readers and writers both. A time when no decent smut writer could envision not writing on Lit, along with whatever commercial setup they had. Lit is definitely not that place anymore, and I think one of the reasons for that is Lit's refusal to change, to evolve in any meaningful way.

For some, the fact that Lit is exactly the same as it was twenty years ago is likely a sign of consistency. It might feel reassuring to some, but I don't see it as a good thing.

I'm curious (not being argumentative) as to the basis for that comment. Have you been a participant in those other sites, and what makes them better? Traffic, the interface, the story editors, what?

Whenever I see folk talking about other sites, it's either, "Let's allow everything in, content wise" - I think Lit's content policies are a plus, even if at times inconsistently applied - or, "If you're not in with the editors, you're out." I don't see m(any) distinct advantages mentioned, let alone the much lower traffic. That's the kicker for me, show me the traffic.

To contend that Lit hasn't changed in twenty years seems to me a bit blinkered. It's had incremental changes in the twelve years I've been here, more to do with technical survival under the increasing load, I grant you, but in the old engineer's adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Yes, it could certainly be better, but where's the money? I guess we could ask a tech bro. They're generous fuckers, as we all know.

In terms of features, the main one I want to see is threaded story commentary so we can engage better - but even then, I suspect extracting such engagement from readers will continue to be blood from a stone. Everyone is keen to blame the site for its shortcomings (which are there, I agree), but what seems to go missing, every time, is the simple fact that readers don't engage much, and it's their behaviour that we all want to change. And as we all know, readers are like silent ghosts, with hints that they're there, but how would you really know?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Do you have data, such as site traffic data, to back this up? If not then you have no basis for saying this. According to one traffic monitoring site I saw in August 2026 Literotica had over 54 million visits and was ranked 765 in the world. That doesn't sound like a site whose golden age is over. To my knowledge it remains by FAR the most popular and heavily trafficked erotic story website on planet Earth.I agree with the second part of what you wrote. Literotica evolves at a glacial pace, and that's probably holding it back from even more success. But I'm not sure it's true that its best times are past.

What kind of data could I possibly offer in this sense, considering I'm not using clicks as a metric?

 

[SmilingLez]

What kind of data could I possibly offer in this sense, considering I'm not using clicks as a metric?

FYI

https://www.siteworthtraffic.com/report/literotica.com

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I'm curious (not being argumentative) as to the basis for that comment. Have you been a participant in those other sites, and what makes them better? Traffic, the interface, the story editors, what?

I think you misunderstood me. I never said there was any better website for erotic stories than Lit. I often lament the lack of competition because Lit, with all its faults, is still the best.

Whenever I see folk talking about other sites, it's either, "Let's allow everything in, content wise" - I think Lit's content policies are a plus, even if at times inconsistently applied - or, "If you're not in with the editors, you're out." I don't see m(any) distinct advantages mentioned, let alone the much lower traffic. That's the kicker for me, show me the traffic.

Oh, believe me, I'm not advocating "allowing everything in," but the very opposite. I'm actually advocating putting a stop to human-made slop as well. I think, especially with all that's going on with AI content, that Lit can only have a future as a place that offers something more exclusive, a place with raised standards of a sort.

 

[alohadave]

2) Those who can interpolate within complete data…?

Those who experience off-by-one errors.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I click into a story to look at the word count because there isn't any other way to see it.

Over 10K, I click right back out without reading the first sentence.

Is that a 'View', or not?

Was it at one time, but not now?

 

[anthrodisiac]

I click into a story to look at the word count because there isn't any other way to see it.

Over 10K, I click right back out without reading the first sentence.

Is that a 'View', or not?

Was it at one time, but not now?

You actually can, you go to settings and click Expanded in the story card format. It'll show you all tags, plus word count.

 

[SimonDoom]

What kind of data could I possibly offer in this sense, considering I'm not using clicks as a metric?

Site traffic. That data is available through various sites.

Here's a link to a site traffic ranking comparison of Literotica with its competitors. Literotica stands far, far above all of them, as it has for 20 years or so.https://www.similarweb.com/website/literotica.com/competitors/

 

[SimonDoom]

I click into a story to look at the word count because there isn't any other way to see it.

Over 10K, I click right back out without reading the first sentence.

Is that a 'View', or not?

Was it at one time, but not now?

That is, and always has been, a view.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I think you misunderstood me. I never said there was any better website for erotic stories than Lit. I often lament the lack of competition because Lit, with all its faults, is still the best.

Ah, I misunderstood your comment.

Oh, believe me, I'm not advocating "allowing everything in," but the very opposite. I'm actually advocating putting a stop to human-made slop as well.
I think, especially with all that's going on with AI content, that Lit can only have a future as a place that offers something more exclusive, a place with raised standards of a sort.

How does the site do that though, unless it mandates some kind of editorial standards? Who sets them? More importantly, who would police them?

I can just imagine the, "But that's so unfair on me," posts, they'll make the, "But but but I didn't use AI - except every time I used Grammarly," posts seem like a novelty.

What would be good, in these threads, is to get more readers saying what/how they'd like to see it all work. We're all speaking on behalf of readers in a way, by pretending we know what they want, but the truth is, our authors' bias is the only thing on display. I don't have a clue what readers really want because they so rarely speak up. It's frustrating, for sure.

Just need to keep writing to please myself, I guess, and if someone pops in with a comment now and then, that's all I can really ask for.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Other than large volume of stories being submitted in the moment, it is also worth noting the cumulative effect of a quarter of century of preexisting works.

Those works are still out there. They are mostly still just as good (or bad) as they were when they were published. The kind of erotica that Lit full of doesn't age particularly fast; and despite the fact there have been a few technological changes in the meantime, as long as a plot (such as it is) isn't conspicuously missing mobile phones or text messages, it will work in 2026 just as well as it did in 2006.

So unless readers are looking for intentionally contemporary pieces, they are quite likely to be satisfied by something that had graced (or sullied) the New page more than a decade ago, and don't necessarily need to check what pops on it now.

Good point, you aren't competing against the stories released on the same day as yours. You are competing with every story in the library.

 

[LargoKitt]

I'm approaching 2 million views in less than four years. To me that's an astounding number and if even 25% actually finished my stories, it's more exposure than I every imagined. No complaints.

How many stories?

 

[LargoKitt]

I was just wondering about this. It seems overall engagement (at least for me) has been lower over the last few months (fewer ratings, not just views). There are too many complicating factors (I think that non-human FPOV isn't as popular as MPOV or human FPOV monsterfucking), but I was wondering if maybe there was a lull in the summer months compared to the rest of the year because people are on vacation. At least now I know that other people are experiencing something like it too, so it's not totally all in my head/my own damn fault *

*Although probably a not-insignificant amount is my own damn fault.

Yep, I noticed that it seems to take longer for a story to get even ten votes. I have stories where the voters all give it pretty high votes but there are only a handful.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

You actually can, you go to settings and click Expanded in the story card format. It'll show you all tags, plus word count.

I never see that in the format/view I use. Too many clicks to get to it.

Word count just needs to be visible like other details (ratings, series, dates, etc.) are.

 

[LargoKitt]

My belief is... It is a combination of many things.
- The sheer number of stories available on the site
- The growing availability and use of AI to produce exactly what you want
- Times have moved on, if you're looking for exotic porn there are billions of them on the internet... No need to read, you can see it for free.
- Younger audience that has grown up using the internet... Books, or written material not in their sphere of interest.

I think you have to get used to the fact. Fewer readers visit the site, and their options for material are bigger than ever...
It is what it is...

If you write for fun, the question is... Does it matter. If you enjoy the process, then all is well...
If you're doing it to build some miraculous pool of fans, maybe consider making porn videos instead...

Raises an interesting question. Lit prohibits A.I. made stories. But I assume they can be made. And for many, smut need not be too well writ. So if I can ask Chat GPT to write me a dirty story with seven things that are really my kink, and it can instantly crank out an ideal bunny patter or bishop beater, why would I need to prowl a big smut website when my own fantasy is crankable at my own fingertips?

Not sure how you guys are formulating your opinions.

I track my statistics longitudinally. It would be possible to estimate aggregate stats for my catalog back to 2017, but I'm not sure the result is worth the effort. Whatever pattern you see is likely to be different from what I see.

The viewing rate on individual stories declines over time. It can take months for the viewing rate to descend into its long-term pattern.

The aggregate viewing rate on your catalog will be very dependent on how often you publish stories. If you take a long break, your aggregate viewing rate may nearly disappear. If you start publishing at a higher frequency, then your aggregate viewing rate will increase.

That is consistent with long-standing advice on AH, that if you want more eyes on your stories then you should publish more.

It also follows that if you publish a particularly popular piece, then the viewing rate across your catalog will go up. If you publish a series of less popular stories (including subsequent parts of a single story), then your viewing rate will go down.

The number of stories/day published by Lit peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic. It stayed very high for a while and has since gradually declined. I suspect that traffic to the site has followed a similar pattern, but probably not in exact proportion.

I looked up Lit's traffic count. The free example only goes back to last winter, but it shows a peak last winter at about 60M/month and a non-monotonic decline since to about 40M/month. Those are hits on the entire domain, not on stories. Is it seasonally cyclic? Possibly. Is it real? I doubt it. I also don't know how that would translate to views on your stories.

Reading between the lines: You are saying that 'most' readers dial in to scan the 'What's new" stuff and keep coming back for what's new from a favorite author. I kind of thought people dove into the categories that light them up. The shopping shelf is huge. Maybe vet what to read by popularity of the author or rating of the story. Maybe an existing view count points at a good read. Some of us have a bunch of followers and they get pinged when we post. I've never gotten the feeling that most of my followers immediately dive into my new story. One also might assume that if they follow you they would be more in the habit of rating your new work or laying down a comment. For me, only true of some really loyal folks.

 

[Bazzle]

Reading between the lines: You are saying that 'most' readers dial in to scan the 'What's new" stuff and keep coming back for what's new from a favorite author. I kind of thought people dove into the categories that light them up. The shopping shelf is huge.

Once the "New" label goes after 7 days unless you have thousands of followers, your view counter/comments/favourites drops off a cliff. BUT I can not publish for a month and still get around 3-4000 views a month over my 100+ stories.

Someone(s) somewhere are silently reading my stuff.

 

[LargoKitt]

I click into a story to look at the word count because there isn't any other way to see it.

Over 10K, I click right back out without reading the first sentence.

Is that a 'View', or not?

Was it at one time, but not now?

You know what's funny? Lots of folks may shop for shorter stories because they want to 'get right to the good stuff'. But then they may read four or five stories. The longer story might be packed with page after page of 'good stuff.'

 

[ElectricBlue]

One also might assume that if they follow you they would be more in the habit of rating your new work or laying down a comment. For me, only true of some really loyal folks.

That's an optimistic assumption. My followers have built up fairly steadily over a decade, but I'm not at all sure they're all still current on Lit. I'm more inclined to think it's mostly those who've followed in the last two or three years who click in on new stories, not the whole cabundle of followers. But I've got no empirical evidence to support that notion.

And even if every follower jumps in and reads, they're a silent bunch. I'd never know.

 

[ElectricBlue]

You know what's funny? Lots of folks may shop for shorter stories because they want to 'get right to the good stuff'. But then they may read four or five stories. The longer story might be packed with page after page of 'good stuff.'

Especially if you've got a rep for slow burn.