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

[Rikifive 23,472]

I know one thing though - Equestria will last forever. 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

It may not be at it's prime, but it isn't dying. We are here to stay.

Edited June 19, 2018 by Lucid_Nightlight

[Brony Number 42 9,897]

Burn out, people growing out of it.

[Tao 6,706]

It is not dying,   it has just been around for a while and slowed down or people have just moved on.    You find this is ANY fandom of any kind.     Just also when something new comes along,    fans comeback or new fans will join.  

[Nature Tune 8,391]

I do think they're slowly running out of ideas. Also, is it just me, or are there less users active on the forums nowadays?

[Tacodidra 59,767]

I think it will remain reasonably active at least until the end of the series. What will happen then remains to be seen. It depends a lot on how good G5 is (though I doubt it will get anywhere near the same success as G4). I definitely hope the fandom survives after the end of FIM, even if it will inevitably get smaller.

33 minutes ago, Nature Tune said:

I do think they're slowly running out of ideas. Also, is it just me, or are there less users active on the forums nowadays?

I've noticed that in the last few days too. It could be because of the summer and the mid-season hiatus – at least I hope it's temporary.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Nature Tune said:

I do think they're slowly running out of ideas. Also, is it just me, or are there less users active on the forums nowadays?

Yeah if you look at the Alexa ratings, the site's population has declined.

[TheOpticsDuck 189]

The fandom is in decline. It had insane heights and you can only go down from there.
While I don't know much about G5, you can just look at the Sonic fandom. They could survive for a long time without good content...

Of course uh, as time goes on people will get more... weird.

[CypherHoof 26,479]

2 hours ago, Tao said:

It is not dying,   it has just been around for a while and slowed down or people have just moved on.    You find this is ANY fandom of any kind.     Just also when something new comes along,    fans comeback or new fans will join.  

I think the word is "Maturing"

[Babyyoshi309 1,829]

If the fandom was dying, than the movie would not have made four times its budget. 

[Dashy 4 Ever 4,832]

1 hour ago, Babyyoshi309 said:

If the fandom was dying, than the movie would not have made four times its budget. 

So true. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Babyyoshi309 said:

If the fandom was dying, than the movie would not have made four times its budget. 

Where did you hear that?

The movie racked in $21M+ from the domestic side and $38M from the foreign side. According to documents we found from the leak the film costed almost $29 million to make. To top that off the film didn't even do as well as other nations in its home territory, that's not really that impressive.

This means the film making around $60M would only be double the budget which isn't really that impressive. Hasbro's own powerpoints from the leaks also confirm that Hasbro wasn't too impressed with sales either.

Evidence below:

MLP Movie Box Office Analysis

[Megas 27,048]

1 hour ago, Babyyoshi309 said:

If the fandom was dying, than the movie would not have made four times its budget. 

 

24 minutes ago, Sondash Studios said:

So true. 

Rule of thumb is that the company has to make double of the budget(when factoring in promoting and marketing) to even break even, judging by the charts @Key Sharkz posted, it barely managed to do that. Admittedly the movie probably would have been able to do better had the movie not been leaked and everyone not pirated it

On that tangent, for a fandom that claims the show only exists because of them, they sure love to pirate their shit and by fanmade products instead of official releases

[Guest]

If you for some reason need more evidence that the fandom is on a decline look no further than this very site. According to Alexa, this site's traffic has declined significantly in only 3 months and has been going downward for a while now. I mean if you look at how many people are online at any given time that much is obvious too. Even Equestria Daily has seen a significant drop in ranking in only a year.

The reality is the brony trend is winding down.

[GrimGrimoire 4,970]

The fandom has been dying for 6+ years now. That is a long time to be dying. Seriously though, it is declining as has been stated... it is to be expected... does anyone really think it would last forever somehow? It is not going anywhere anytime soon even with the decline... it will just shed the member no longer interested in all. Fans of the franchise will be around for years to come as well as the new people that discover it as the generations swap out.

[Chronicplane 58]

Just as others have said It might not be in it's prime but that doesn't mean it's dead, It's still going strong and has become a phenomenon throughout the globe. The fandom will never flat out die, Dragon Ball was basically over for decades before it got revived and the fan base was strong even before BoG/RoF came out. MLP is garanteed to get it's self another movie which will only draw in even more attention If the previous one hasn't done so already.

MLP is still growing today and is very popular throughout all of media (Youtube, Television, Social Media, Advertising ect ect), I wouldn't be worrying at least not yet anyway. Let's not forget the comics, EQ and G5.

[Goat-kun 2,495]

Yes, it's true. Bronies are packing their bags. We need to evolve beyond ponies.

[Monsoon 1,648]

Nah it's far from dying although it isn't growing much it's probably in the declining state where gen 4 is about to end some time next year and with that quite a few people will slowly leave the fandom and move on to bigger and better things but it isn't going anywhere anytime soon

Edited June 20, 2018 by Crow2

[SaburoDaimando 1,196]

I would say it's far from dying.  It's going through one of its phases.

On the other hand, I've become a bit more distant towards fandoms lately.  Mostly towards Video Game fandoms(Recently, I've become livid towards fellow Smash Bros fans because some Waluigi fanboys decided to harass Masahiro Sakurai over a lack of Waluigi).  When some group of fans become out of control, it just ruins it for me.

[Misty Shadow 7,060]

On 6/19/2018 at 2:13 PM, Key Sharkz said:

If you for some reason need more evidence that the fandom is on a decline look no further than this very site. According to Alexa, this site's traffic has declined significantly in only 3 months and has been going downward for a while now. I mean if you look at how many people are online at any given time that much is obvious too. Even Equestria Daily has seen a significant drop in ranking in only a year.

The reality is the brony trend is winding down.

Though your facts are correct, it needs to be pointed out that internet forums as a whole have been declining in popularity, it's certainly not just for pony.

https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/internet/2017/02/someone-would-always-answer-sad-death-internet-message-board

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2018/03/social-media-usage-declining-in-the-us.html

Mobile is what's all the rage now, people these days generally just check their favorite sites with their phones and move on with their day. Internet is still very much recognized as essential, but the general public is simply not invested in "the world of the internet" like they used to be.

[Silver Letter 1,830]

The older fandom needs to stay around in order to help represent older fans of MLP in general and to remind people that fans of all ages can enjoy a show that's considered "girly" by mainstream society.

[Abandoned Acc 24]

I don't feel the fandom is "dying" as it is just declining. Friendship is Magic has been around for 8 years now, and I can understand that for all those years bronies may have moved on from the series to pursue something else.

[SaburoDaimando 1,196]

30 minutes ago, Silver Letter said:

The older fandom needs to stay around in order to help represent older fans of MLP in general and to remind people that fans of all ages can enjoy a show that's considered "girly" by mainstream society.

As a brony, I'm willing to stick around to help with the transition for a new generation.  But then again, the bronies are decent compared to the gaming man babies I've seen on the internet.

Edited June 21, 2018 by SaburoDaimando

[Silver Letter 1,830]

22 minutes ago, StrangeGirl said:

I don't feel the fandom is "dying" as it is just declining. Friendship is Magic has been around for 8 years now, and I can understand that for all those years bronies may have moved on from the series to pursue something else.

I don't really get that. It seems that some people see fandoms as an "all or nothing" proposition. I've had fandoms decline in my life but I don't abandon them just because time has passed. It's not a good reason.

[LeafFerret 3,382]

I think part of the reason why the show is declining is the fact that the core cast remains intact after 8 seasons. It's alright to keep them after 4-5 seasons, but once you go past that, you're taking too much of a chance. I just wish they would change things up and keep them as minor characters and make some of the newer characters the new main cast.