mega thread The state of the Brony fandom (Numbers, Popularly, Future)

[alpinefroggy 451]

Well considering the fandom managed to stay extremely healthy through a long hiatus I don't see any sign of stopping. And now that season 5 is coming out It will likely grow unless Hasbro does something bad with the story

[IJoinedForPonies 126]

I was curious about that as well, I just couldn't tell whether or not it was growing or shrinking or level. I have only been a Brony for like 8 months (could be wrong), and the mere thought of this fandom dying just makes me depressed like i'm dying inside. :-/

[Justin_Case001 4,885]

I just want to point out, again, that the fandom isn't some kind of club/organization with member dues and a governing body and executive chairman or something, where if it's not active enough the government won't give us funds for next year and it will be abolished.  We're just f-a-n-s.  This isn't a criticism of you, OP, but as a general note, I do get sick of all the "leaving the fandom" or "the fandom is dying" crap.  I should start a dedicated website called MLPEKG.com, and the entire site is just one of those hearbeat monitoring things that just keeps beeping away, and bronies can sign in/out, and the more that are signed in, the faster it goes and vice versa.  And we'd have to have a desktop gadget and phone app that does a code blue alarm when the heartrate drops below a certain amount.  Then we can watch in real time as the fandom's heartbeat flatlines.  That'd show em.

 

But seriously, I do think the fandom is as strong as ever.  Probably the biggest and strongest it's ever been.  There is no cause for concern or alarm.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Justin_Case001

[Felix 1,363]

Nope. You're not the first one to ask either so trust me everyone here is right. During this time specifically peeps are just a waitin' the next season!

Edited March 14, 2015 by Felix

[Aurelleah 894]

Also, fluttershy is best pony.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

@@Aurelleah

 

Just to let you know I have merged your topic with an older that had more posts. In the future please remember to search for previous topics through either the forum search feature or through Google site search.

 

Thanks.

 

Also, I do not think the fandom is dying. Not by a long shot! Many fandom persist through the ages; even though the fan count decreases. Bronies will be here for a long time, IMO.

 

So says Mr. Spyro the Dragon avatar.

[Aurelleah 894]

WHOA WHAT IN SWEET CELESTIA'S NAME??????

 

Looks like the mods merged the post, I was wondering why my thread suddenly had 225 posts lol

 

Edit: Spyro mustve got one of those whirlwind-feet powerups, cause damn that was fast

 

EDIT2: HHNNNNNNGGGGG THE NOSTALGIA OF EARLY 90S!!!!

Edited March 14, 2015 by Aurelleah

[Guest90210 3,568]

 

According to Google Trends, search queries have consistently been going up. Con attendance is up across the board, and I've been seeing bronies pop up everywhere from personal experience. I think its safe to say the fandom isn't dying.

 

 

 

It's been a year since this post. What has changed since then?

 

 

---

 

Not a whole lot. Search trends continue to climb slowly, with small drops in between; mainly except for "brony" which continues to drop. I made another post back in August of 2014 which discussed my views on the fandom's size and observable activity. It seems like the points I made there are still generally relevant.

 

To summarize what I've gathered; The fandom isn't dying, nor is it anywhere close to disappearing. However, its growth has been stung significantly since 2012-2013, and it's losing members (or having an increased amount of "less active" members) faster than it usually does. Again, it's still huge, and the Super Bowl ad which features ponies proves that it's still culturally relevant. It's just that the fandom was bound to cool down at some point because it exploded onto the scene so quickly. It may begin to grow again depending on what happens in 2015, and with the upcoming MLP:FIM movie.

 

Season 5 will be big for the fandom and the show's future. We'll see how it goes. 

Edited March 14, 2015 by Rivendare

[Aurelleah 894]

How'd you get that info? That's hella neat

[Pastel 7,630]

The fandom is a lot more active when a season is airing.

However, I don't think it has gotten bigger since season 3~4.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Blobulle

[Guest90210 3,568]

How'd you get that info? That's hella neat

 

I found the data on Google Trends. Basically, it analyzes search queries for certain terms. That graph in my post is how often "MLP", "My Little Pony", etc were searched on Google, which should give an idea of MLP and the fandom's popularity and relevance. It isn't conclusive, but it's a solid basis.

[Shady23 175]

I really hope it's not dying I just got here 

[KatonRyu 1,033]

Considering the activity on this forum and other MLP related sites, and Season 5 about to start, I think the fandom is just as alive as ever, maybe even more so. People always worry about fandoms dying but as long as people have those fears the fandom won't die. It's when people don't worry about it and things just fade away that fandoms actually die.

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,302]

I, personally, will always be invested in MLP.  Not because of the fandom.  Not even necessarily because of the show itself.  But because of Rainbow.  It's all because of Rainbow.  So I'll never really walk away.  Though I do expect the bandwagon jumpers (particularly those who are big into the likes of Grimdark) to move on to the "next big thing" the moment the show ceases airing new episodes.  Or as soon as they simply lose interest.  And I feel as though many current Bronies will later look back at their interest in MLP as an embarrassing "phase."  Being into the likes Star Wars or Star Trek usually won't see you labeled as anything worse than a geek.  Being into MLP...  Well, I don't really need to elaborate.

 

Hopefully those of us who don't give a damn about that sort of nonsense right now will still look back upon FIM fondly down the road.  And if I abandon the fandom itself, it will be because of the fandom.  My interests and feelings concerning MLP and, more accurately, Rainbow won't change.

[Buck Testa 5,505]

Not this again...

 

No its not dying out. You want to know WHY its not dying out? Because this forum is full 24/7, equestria daily is highly active, fimfiction and youtube gets vids and fics on the daily, pony youtubers are reaching tens of thousands of subscribers, and the hype for season 5 is palpable. Whats more MLP recently had a cameo in a Superbowl commercial. The show is doing great, the fans are loving it, and honestly I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes here, but this topic ended in APRIL 2014 for a reason.

. 

[Steve Piranha 29,424]

No, I don't think it's dying, being chilled out because of the hiatus sounds more accurate rather than dying. Heck, it'll probably reach a DBZ esque inmortality

[Obstinance 21]

I believe that the ''fandom' isn't quite dying, rather I believe that real life is catching up with a lot of people and they simply don't have time to contribute in the way they used to to sites such as the one we are currently on. It will 'die', 'rise again', rinse and repeat for as long as the show itself continues, most likely.

[Confucius 194]

Don't worry we can go the distance, we don't care how far, somehow we'll be strong. We know every mile will be worth our while. We can go most anywhere to find where we belong!

 

On a more serious note the fandom is actually growing and thriving pretty well. You can olny expect more musicians and artists in the future including me.

[CrimsonBlade34 6]

nope. simply nope this fandom will stay alive even if the show is canceled the fandom will live on through brony artists pencils  

[Tao 7,742]

The fandom is not dead,  just slow for now till

the new wave with season 5 comes to pass!

[Idris 241]

Crimson blade sounds right to me. I ran a pub meet robot wars club for a few years and it kind of fizzled out in 2005. But I bump into RW folk here and there and we are still big fans. It's all still under benches and in cupboards. I dragged it out for a photo last week for exactly the same reason of interest we had years back. And new folk will be discovering mlp for years to come. I only got into it two weeks ago. If it's fun it will endure.

[Aurelleah 894]

Not this again...

 

No its not dying out. You want to know WHY its not dying out? Because this forum is full 24/7, equestria daily is highly active, fimfiction and youtube gets vids and fics on the daily, pony youtubers are reaching tens of thousands of subscribers, and the hype for season 5 is palpable. Whats more MLP recently had a cameo in a Superbowl commercial. The show is doing great, the fans are loving it, and honestly I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes here, but this topic ended in APRIL 2014 for a reason.

. 

Actually I started a new topic 2 days ago and the mod merged it into this old one.

[Admiral Regulus 2,769]

The probability of the fandom dying out is identical to the probability of real-life ponies dying out.

[Captain Brony (MG11) 218]

This is a tricky question to give a straight answer to because it depends on the meaning.

 

As far as the fandom goes, Bronies are still strong. There's no changing that.

 

The hype has definitely died down, and I think this could be attributed to the focus of the show and fandom activity (but that's just my opinion). I'd be more active if I saw more interesting content coming from the Bronies.

 

Another issue seems to be the state of the fandom. Pre-season 3 discussion used to be about celebrating the show in it's entirety. Now it's just hard to start a conversation about an episode without inciting drama or arguments.

 

I also suspect that the low content output from Bronies may have been affected by the slew of copyright strikes from a few years ago. A lot of top-notch content creators were taken down (some justifiably, some unjustifiably), leaving little hope for budding content creators from trying anything interesting with the material. All they can do now really is ask permission or familiarize themselves with the copyright laws to work within it.

Edited March 15, 2015 by Captain Brony (MG11)

[Snow Frostflame 3,568]

this fandom is not showing any signs of dying..... our fandom is likely to live for several decades even after the shows ending