MCYT on Ao3 — January '24
The state of MCYT on Ao3, just for fun. Yes I do this every month, I like numbers. This time the period we're covering will include many holiday exchanges, so I'm excited to see if that's represented!
The Cube SMP (8 works)
Slamacow Minecraft Animations (Web Series) (10 works)
iDots SMP (23 works)
30 Day SMP | Free Trial SMP (27 works)
Legacy SMP (28 works)
Cogchamp SMP (29 works)
Content SMP (30 works)
Epic SMP (32 works)
Art of Survival SMP (36 works)
Dominion SMP (38 works)
Shady Oaks SMP (49 works)
X Life SMP (51 works)
100 Hours Hardcore SMP (54 works)
IvoryCello's Prison Escapes (Web Series) (56 works)
Bear SMP (60 works)
SadSMP (66 works)
My Inner Demons - Aphmau (Web Series) (67 works)
Mer SMP (82 works)
Area Unknown SMP (89 works)
Kaboodle SMP (91 works)
Tortillaland SMP (115 works)
House Builder Gang SMP | HBG SMP (135 works)
New Life SMP (169 works)
Slimecicle Cinematic Universe (Web Series) (174 works)
WitchCraft SMP (182 works)
Pirates SMP (213 works)
Rats SMP (234 works)
SMPLive (295 works)
SMPEarth (304 works)
Mianite (Web Series) (379 works)
Outsiders SMP (393 works)
Afterlife SMP (395 works)
MindCrack RPF (504 works)
MyStreet - Aphmau (Web Series) (543 works)
Evolution SMP (693 works)
Minecraft: Story Mode (Video Game) (824 works)
Karmaland SMP (842 works)
Fable SMP (1,012 works)
Lifesteal SMP (1,546 works)
Origins SMP (1575 works)
The Yogscast (3,215 works)
Empires SMP (6,408 works)
QSMP | Quackity SMP (7,375 works)
3rd Life | Last Life SMP Series (10,336 works)
Hermitcraft SMP (20,093 works)
Dream SMP (85,051 works)
Minecraft (Video Game) (110,119 works)
Video Blogging RPF (279,422 works)
Some notes:
No new tags that I saw this month, though as always I could have missed something! As you can see, we already have quite the assortment of canonized tags.
Fics are still primarily in english, but we have three exceptions with significant spanish fics. Karmaland (740 of 842 are in spanish, from 731 last month), Tortillaland (110 of 115 are in spanish, the same as last month), and QSMP (752 of 7,375 are in spanish, from 668 last month.)
QSMP also shows 39 fics in French, up from 30 last month, and 405 in Brasilian Portugese, up from 375 last month. While I did not check every language this month, I checked on the languages I knew had a fic in QSMP and we see 1 fic in ASL (probably a misclick as it appears to be in english), 1 fic in Bahasa Malaysia, 1 fic in German, 1 fic in Esperanto, 1 fic in Filipino, 5 works in European Portugese, 5 fics in Русский (Russian), 1 fic in Suomi (Finnish), 1 fic in Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese), and 3 fics in 中文-普通话 國語 (Mandarin Chinese, I believe), all the same as last month. New is two fics in Polski (Polish), one fic in Svenska (Swedish), and one fic in Dansk (Danish).
In the small and micro fandoms (under 200 fics), some of the most active small fandoms have grown out of this category so we only saw small amounts of growth. The standout fandoms all saw an increase of 6 works, and that was a tie between Content SMP, New Life SMP, and Witchcraft SMP. Note that Content SMP was coming up from only 24 works, so 6 new works is an increase of 25% of the fandom, truly impressive.
In the midsize fandoms (200-1000), Fable SMP has broken that 1000-fic mark and can no longer qualify for our standout fandom! Instead, our most active fandom was Evolution SMP, with 33 new works, followed by Mystreet with 20 fics and Minecraft: Story Mode with 24 fics. Mystreet and Story Mode are both new fandoms so it's unclear whether that's people retagging old work or true new fics.
For the post-canon big fandoms: Empires went up by 178 works, singificantly more than last month's 117, but not beating the previous month's 240, and Dream SMP's increase of 918 beat the previous month's 767, but is still only the second time I've seen this fandom fall under a thousand works plus a month. Hermitcraft is between seasons right now, but still experienced that holiday exchange boost, as its increase of 784 beat both last month's 574 and the previous month's 651. For active fandoms, traffic series posted a staggering 831 fics, which is its highest ever number, beating April 2023's 671 fics. QSMP saw 865 fics, which is part of a three month decline (894 last month, 913 the month before), but still posting numbers that are only exceeded by DSMP.
Overall, the number of fics posted under Video Blogging-RPF (the umbrella fandom that contains all MCYT) is 4,223 fics, a significant increase from last month's 3,489, and the previous month's 4,035, but still exceeded by October's record 4,702. Notably, it's higher than the summer numbers and almost exactly the same as the number we saw last January, 4,235 new works.
Detailed breakdown under the cut
The Cube SMP (8 works, 8 last month, 0-fic increase)
Slamacow Minecraft Animations (Web Series) (10 works, 10 last month, 0-fic increase)
iDots SMP (23 works, 22 last month, 1-fic increase)
30 Day SMP | Free Trial SMP (27 works, 27 last month, 0-fic increase)
Legacy SMP (28 works, 28 last month, 0-fic increase)
Cogchamp SMP (29 works, 29 last month, 0-fic increase)
Content SMP (30 works, 24 last month, 6-fic increase)
Epic SMP (32 works, 32 last month, 0-fic increase)
Art of Survival SMP (36 works, 36 last month, 0-fic increase)
Dominion SMP (38 works, 33 last month, 5-fic increase)
Shady Oaks SMP (49 works, 47 last month, 2-fic increase)
X Life SMP (51 works, 50 last month, 1-fic increase)
100 Hours Hardcore SMP (54 works, 54 last month, 0-fic increase)
IvoryCello's Prison Escapes (Web Series) (56 works, 54 last month, 2-fic increase)
Bear SMP (60 works, 59 last month, 1-fic increase)
SadSMP (66 works, 66 last month, 0-fic increase)
My Inner Demons - Aphmau (Web Series) (67 works, 64 last month, 3-fic increase)
Mer SMP (82 works, 80 last month, 2-fic increase)
Area Unknown SMP (89 works, 87 last month, 2-fic increase)
Kaboodle SMP (91 works, 87 last month, 4-fic increase)
Tortillaland SMP (115 works, 115 last month, 0-fic increase)
House Builder Gang SMP | HBG SMP (135 works, 134 last month, 1-fic increase)
New Life SMP (169 works, 163 last month, 6-fic increase)
Slimecicle Cinematic Universe (Web Series) (174 works, 169 last month, 5-fic increase)
WitchCraft SMP (182 works, 176 last month, 6-fic increase)
Pirates SMP (213 works, 195 last month, 18-fic increase)
Rats SMP (234 works, 229 last month, 5-fic increase)
SMPLive (295 works, 286 last month, 9-fic increase)
SMPEarth (304 works, 289 last month, 15-fic increase)
Mianite (Web Series) (379 works, 373 last month, 6-fic increase)
Outsiders SMP (393 works, 374 last month, 19-fic increase)
Afterlife SMP (395 works, 390 last month, 5-fic increase)
MindCrack RPF (504 works, 503 last month, 1-fic increase)
MyStreet - Aphmau (Web Series) (543 works, 523 last month, 20-fic increase)
Evolution SMP (693 works, 660 last month, 33-fic increase)
Minecraft: Story Mode (Video Game) (824 works, 800 last month, 24-fic increase)
Karmaland SMP (842 works, 824 last month, 18-fic increase)
Fable SMP (1,012 works, 945 last month, 67-fic increase)
Lifesteal SMP (1,546 works, 1,461 last month, 85-fic increase)
Origins SMP (1,575 works, 1,541 last month, 34-fic increase)
The Yogscast (3,215 works, 3,213 last month, 2-fic increase)
Empires SMP (6,408 works, 6,230 last month, 178-fic increase)
QSMP | Quackity SMP (7,375 works, 6,510 last month, 865-fic increase)
3rd Life | Last Life SMP Series (10,336 works, 9,505 last month, 831-fic increase)
Hermitcraft SMP (20,093 works, 19,309 last month, 784-fic increase)
Dream SMP (85,051 works, 918-fic increase)
Minecraft (Video Game) (110,119 works, 438-fic increase)
Video Blogging RPF (279,422 works, 4223-fic increase)
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THE FINAL SMACKDOWN.
Big congratulations to "The Two-Headed Calf" for a solid win over "How to Be a Dog" (and to our Third Place competitor, "Wild Geese")!
Thank you to all who participated. I had a lot of fun with this and I hope you guys did as well! I've said it before but I had no idea this would get as big as it did, and it's been truly heartening to see this many people engaging with poetry and getting excited about it. I'm personally grateful to all the folks I got the chance to discuss poems with, and everyone who challenged me to see these poems in a new light. Whether you were introduced to new poems or reunited with old ones, whether you voted with the majority or against it, I hope you got something out of this as well.
As promised, here is the grand stats spreadsheet. The smackdown with the highest turnout was the semifinal matchup "The Two-Headed Calf" by Laura Gilpin vs. "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver with 17,449 votes! In second place, Round 1: "Poem" by Langston Hughes vs. "A Meeting" by Wendell Berry with 16,690 votes.
Unfortunately my real-life responsibilities have hit me like a truck and I don't have time to do a whole post dedicated to reviewing more of it, but I hope y'all might share any insights you have below! I also included the word count stats on the "summary" page, as suggested in this ask by @puddinginthemix. Nevertheless, they don't seem to demonstrate a concrete trend in one direction or the other—the mean word count difference technically gives a slight edge to longer poems in competition, but with such an insane standard deviation as to render the whole thing silly.
On the topic of a sequel.
After some deliberation, I've decided I would love to do another one of these focusing on poems that are lesser-known on Tumblr! In a perfect world I would just jump right in again, but it's quickly becoming clear to me that I will not have time to sort through/pair submissions and then run the thing while balancing work and school in the upcoming semester. With that in mind, my plan is to run it over the winter holidays so I'm able to give it more of my attention. That said, I've already made the submission form, and I'm tempted to release that ASAP so that I can use any downtime in the fall to read, review, and structure things thoughtfully. I also just figure it'll get a higher volume of submissions if I release it now. I know it's probably not ideal, but would people be cool with me opening submissions earlier, even if it means there'll be a significant time gap between submission and competition? If so, I'll get that out no later than Tuesday, and likely keep it open for a few weeks (unless it gets, like, seriously swamped lol).
Lastly, I've still got some asks I need to get through.....they're still on my mind. I'll do my best to respond to everyone within the next week!
Thank you again to everyone who participated, it's been such a joy!
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