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

[Scootalove 10,689]

Mostly it is the hiatuses that cause a change in the fanbase, but then they start to return once the new season starts again in a repeatable cycle.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

Do you feel that the fanbase has shrunk since it started? I don't feel like there are as many places to discuss MLP as there used to be.

 

Even on this very forum, it doesn't feel like there's as much discussion. The discussion thread for the S5 premiere got 43 pages, while the thread for the S6 premiere only got 22. The discussion for the 3rd episode of S5 got 22 pages, and the third episode for S6 only got 13.

Absolutely. The fanbase seems to have shrunken massively since S3; MLP sites have their traffic slowing massively, the amount of pony fanart and material is nothing compared to its S2 or even S3 self, and its momentum has definitely stopped.

[hgdsghfdhgfdghfdshg 82]

Yes, I do believe the fanbase is shrinking. I for one left for a few years and only came back as of recently. I left because the fanbase simply isn't what it was when it started. For new people that are just joining there seems to be this constant feeling of wonder and excitement of doing something new like this. I am going through this feeling right now because I have 3 seasons to catch up on  . In my opinion this whole thing just gets bleak after a while and in turn, cause people to make their departure. If we ignore the people leaving, we can also see that there are less people coming in. Bronies are all over the internet and everyone already knows about it. Most people have already decided whether they were going to be one or not. That's my opinion on the matter of this fanbase shrinking. To be honest, I'm okay with it getting smaller.

[silvadel 1,393]

Big time -- in both size and intensity.  Like there will say never be another Buck, so if you missed it and are in Europe, you won't attend a convention of the same level. 

 

On the Fiction side of things, authors are mainly doing one shots and short serials as opposed to epic stuff. 

[Mesme Rize 15,683]

No doubt. I am in this fandom for 4 and a half years now and it's nowhere near the intensity once was, for me because of 3 reasons.

 

1. The hiatus between S4 and S5 was almost a year long. Pretty much a long time for everybody to lose sight of it.

2. The Hub vanished and was replaced by Discovery Family, a channel that has no idea how to market the show.

3. For most, it's just not the cool thing anymore. Bronies in the early days, where very rebellious, showing that they like a franchise for girls. Now that it's established itself, this specialness is gone.

 

It's not dieing and there is certainly enough fanstuff to go through. But the hype is gone and we're like every other fandom.

[Shanks 10,816]

I don't think it is shrinking, at least not long term but much of the intensity is going down in large part because since the brony fandom is slowly but surely being normalized there is less of a novelty to it so to speak. There is also a bit of nostalgia bias causing people to long for the "good old days" being the earlier days of the fandom or their involvement in it. People also leave every now and then due to major changes in the show or fandom like twilicorn for example lead to a lot of people leaving and there is also the simple fact that some people lose interest and leave for that reason. When there is less intensity there can seem to be fewer members even if there is a comparable amount of them because the more enthusiastic someone is the louder they are.

[ManaMinori 4,145]

Yeah, probably. But the hipsters who were into FiM because it was all the rage at its peak of popularity, may have likely been the extra pounds shed. The serious fans are all that matter, and who'll keep the fanase alive, even though its gotten smaller.

[LeonShi500 155]

The fanbase is remaining consistent in number alone.

 

The people who made the largest impact in the fanbase years ago are nearly all gone.

 

Without them, it gives off the illusion that the fanbase is shrinking. They were the ones that really made this show feel alive and they helped it stand out from just being a silly hipster trend that would immediately die out.

 

It's not shrinking in number, but what good is that?

Edited April 15, 2016 by LeonShi500

[FlitterFlutter 1,583]

 

 

The discussion for the 3rd episode of S5 got 22 pages, and the third episode for S6 only got 13.

Yes it is shrinking perhaps. I think just most of the hipster people have left. However don't take the page count as any indication. You have to remember the older ep. have have more time to gain the pages.

[PacificGreen 1,163]

I think it's probably near impossible to answer this questions, since we have no idea how many people are joining and leaving the fandom at any given period.

 

That said, there's not nearly as much hype for the show as there was when it started (or so I've heard), so maybe that's an indicator. Nevertheless, I hope the fandom stays alive a long time.

[JonasDarkmane 19,785]

@@VG_Addict

Hey there  

 

Considering that this topic talks more about the fanbase than the actual show, I have moved it to a more appropriate section, the Sugarcube  

[Luminance 2,186]

I joined recently, so that counts!

[Fluttershyfan94 5,742]

I think it may be shrinking but more like the real fans are being weeded out. What you see now is the more hardcore fans of the show as well as newcomers. So it may have shrink a little but that's not necessarily a bad thing though. Like which would you rather, have a fandom full of dedicated fans? Or hipsters. So I think it's just fine the way it is. 

[Phanact 333]

I don't think so

 

Derpibooru is more active than ever, EqD as well. 

 

Bronycon has had more people than ever each year.

[4HFan 476]

No matter what happens, I'm never leaving the fandom. I've been a Brony since FIM started and I'm certainly not going anywhere. But it does seem that the fandom is getting smaller, even The Living Tombstone left! I was heartbroken...

[Revisedwords101 6]

I've been a fan of FIM for 2 years and only recently found the forums (Including this one), servers, Youtubers (The ones that left too) and the artists that this fandom once (and kinda still) yielded.

 

Now, I do believe that the fandom is getting smaller but just as many other pony's said above me, It seems the fandom is "refreshing" itself by pulling out the "weeds" and other fandoms do it too.

 

Also, remember that quite a number of FIM fans are growing up and drawing pony art all day isn't going to give you a good grade in college. 

 

Yes, the "highpoint" of the fandom maybe over. But, who knows? A new generation of bronys may sprout up later in time! ;3

[Phanact 333]

No matter what happens, I'm never leaving the fandom. I've been a Brony since FIM started and I'm certainly not going anywhere. But it does seem that the fandom is getting smaller, even The Living Tombstone left! I was heartbroken...

 

I personally never thought he was that good, and he wasn't a very nice person from what I saw tbh

[M'gann M'orzz 745]

It's more complicated than "Shrinking" or "growing" it's more about a loss of intensity and NEW FAN ENTHUIASM than pure numbers, now yes we have lost numbers but those have mostly been the sort of bandwagon types who jumped on in 2012 when it was "cool" to do so then faded by 2014 mostly. When it comes to more serious fans we still bring in enough new people to basically have a replacement rate, but that's the issue, that only means we can hold steady at post-HIP levels of fan works production. New Fans tend to be the most CRAZY ENTHUSASTIC OMG EVERYTHING IS SO NEW AND COOL, and every fandom as it ages slows down in production unless it gets a massive surge of new fans for whatever reason. We are holding steady in amount of fans basically, And if you look at the production of fanworks that bares notice too, Fan fic and art went a pretty rapid decline in the first half of 2014... but have basically held totally steady since then (with one last two month or so surge for when Rainbow Rocks came out, not because of new fans but because of MASSIVE character specific fandoms sprouting up for the Dazzlings and Sunset Shimmer from within the existing fanbase on a level that we'd really only seen with the Changelings before or since).

 

 

Basically it's the natural cycle for any fandom, especially fandoms that basically were fad-like at some point in their history like ours. I don't mind it much personally.. aside from the fact that if the characters and ships and stuff that tend to be more popular now were as popular as they are now back then well... id have a lot more super long fics and such about characters I care about more *CoughRarityAndApplejack* than I currently do 

 

 

 

Big time -- in both size and intensity.  Like there will say never be another Buck, so if you missed it and are in Europe, you won't attend a convention of the same level. 

 

On the Fiction side of things, authors are mainly doing one shots and short serials as opposed to epic stuff. 

 

I gotta say, I disagree with you on the Fic thing, I still see plenty of long adventure epics and such. And BUCK didn't end because of lack of atendee's it ended because the Con-Crew just didn't want to deal with the struggle of running a Con anymore, it's freaking hard work (also apparently there was some big internal drama as well)

 

 

But in terms of fic what really HAS decreased there far more than you'd expect over the percentage of fan fic production decrease in general is Mane 6 ship fics, especially weird since that decrease hasn't been noticed in art. But yeah Mane 6 ships that got more popular later like say, Rarijack, TwiJack, and more recently RariDash lag far behind in TOTAL fic compared to AppleDash and TwiDash which were very much dominant in 2012 and 2013.. but if you look at the fics STILL being produced, FlutterDash and Rarijack actually get about as much new stuff now as AppleDash does with ships like TwiJack and RariDash coming close to it (TwiDash beats them all easily though it lost a lot less momentum than AppleDash did), they just continue to lag it overall because of a large lead built in the early days when Mane 6 shipping was huge. 

Strangely enough this hasn't hit Outside of Mane 6 ship fics nearly as bad, ships like SoarinDash and SunLight have only gotten stronger and gotten more and more fic in the last 2 years or so.

Edited April 15, 2016 by M'gann M'orzz

[Osiria 142]

There's going to be a (unofficial) bronycon in Shanghai this summer, first one for China. So at least I think it's not shrinking globally.   

[Riganthor 484]

I dont really think its shrinking, the people who joined for only to say the where in this fandom left but in other nations outside the US where it wasn't in the news, the fandom seems to be growing. So the us fanbase is shrinking but internationally it stays about the same

[Jest (Inactive) 875]

Alot of the people who joined at the start (the fandom in general) were likely edgy people who wanted to be different. There was a massive bandwagon at people being unique for watching a show that was targeted at little girls and the fandom started off as a joke on sites like 4Chan and reddit. I would say most of these people are since long gone, since it's an established fandom and a well recognized one, there is nothing for people with that motive to gain anymore. 

 

Besides, all shows vary massive in popularity as they progress. People also tend to place too much emphasis on being in a fandom, personally I think if you really genuinely enjoy a show it doesn't matter if there are 10 like minded people or 10 million and no one should have to use the amount of people watching a show to justify them being a fan. 

[King 5,625]

Volatile, that's how most fan bases are these days. The hype and initial growth doesn't last forever and eventually things will calm down and appear to be going badly when in fact that isn't the case at all. The MLP fandom, and MLPF's community specifically, is just stabilising. Naturally you'll have people who tend to take breaks during the hiatus between the shows seasons in addition to those who just lose interest, that leads to periods where it looks like the fan base is dying. Honestly though there's nothing to worry about, I don't see the community coming to an end any time in the next few years. Plenty of time left.

[Attack of the Pwns 894]

Yes it is shrinking perhaps. I think just most of the hipster people have left. However don't take the page count as any indication. You have to remember the older ep. have have more time to gain the pages.

I think this is a large part of why Season 6 has less discussion-because there wasn't as much hype for this season, not because there is less enthusiasm in the fs base as a whole, but because it seemed to sneak up on us. This hiatus was incredibly short compared to the hiatus between Season 4 and 5, so people had less time to speculate on what was going to happen in the next season premiere.

 

As far as fandom size goes, as someone who became a brony at the end of Season 4, I think we have grown from where we were when I started. Yeah, I still find a lot of art that dates back to Seasons 2 & 3, but there's a lot more being produced now than there was back in Season 4. Like the others, I think we lost a lot of momentum when Twilicorn happened, but most of the people we lost were just hipsters in it for the novelty factor, anyway.

[Ponies4Bronies 394]

Sure, in a way. The posers leave after a while and it sort or works like a sieve leaving the serious fans that commit to the show and the fandom. So after time we become a smaller and more devoted fandom and that can be a positive thing. 

[TheAnimatorOfficial 567]

I think it's shrinking, but in terms of the bad fans.

I think it's shrinking, but in terms of the bad fans.