AO3 Stats Meme
As seen on 
katmarajade's LJ, with some variations. I'm going for top 10 instead of top 5 because the results get more interesting (to me, anyhow) by going a little further down.
I find this fascinating in a small way, particularly because what other folks seem to like best frequently doesn't match up with what I like best/am proudest of. There's quite a lot of duplication between the lists so I will only give the title/link and the relevant stats after the first time, but always including word count since it makes some sense that longer fics might get more comments, for instance, since there are more chapters and thus more opportunities.
A few thoughts on the results follow the stats. I'd be interested if anyone else who looks at their AO3 stats has seen different things in theirs, or has further comments.
Top Ten by Hits
Top Ten by Kudos
Top Ten by Bookmarks
Top Ten by Comments
Top Ten by Word Count
The comments numbers for the co-written fics run higher because both
cruisedirector and I generally reply to all comments; which means that the solo fic comments numbers are also typically doubled from the actual readers' comments. But that's consistent throughout so the relative numbers still make sense.
The most-read, most-popular things tend to be on the longer side (which surprises me somewhat), and also explicit (which does not).
While Harry Potter fic gets notably more attention than the other fandoms, that may be partly because I've written so much more of it, too; somewhere in the vicinity of a million words, counting the co-written stories. Co-written works show up significantly more often in the top tens proportionate to their total percentage of my fics, but they also tend to be longer pieces (which as noted above are more popular). I am pleased that some of the other fandoms appear too, for instance The King's Speech and the Sime~Gen world, as well as Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Over the past few months I've reread some (though by no means all) of my own fic, both the solo and the co-written stuff. Mostly I think it holds up. Since the longer works were all posted chapter by chapter as they were written, the smuttier fics don't always work so well when read at one go; I find I get tired of it when there's sex in every (or nearly every) chapter.
Re: the longer fics, most of them if not all were originally intended as shorter one-shots (including the co-written pieces), but then grew unexpectedly. I know some people like to create detailed plots and have the whole idea of what will happen in the story worked out in advance, but for me, doing that tends to kill it. If I know what's going to happen, I'm less interested in actually writing it out. The extreme example of this might be Better Than Revenge, which was a <2400 word short story originally and turned into a >175,000 word novel.
katmarajade's LJ, with some variations. I'm going for top 10 instead of top 5 because the results get more interesting (to me, anyhow) by going a little further down.
I find this fascinating in a small way, particularly because what other folks seem to like best frequently doesn't match up with what I like best/am proudest of. There's quite a lot of duplication between the lists so I will only give the title/link and the relevant stats after the first time, but always including word count since it makes some sense that longer fics might get more comments, for instance, since there are more chapters and thus more opportunities.
A few thoughts on the results follow the stats. I'd be interested if anyone else who looks at their AO3 stats has seen different things in theirs, or has further comments.
Top Ten by Hits
- Notches on a Broomstick: Harry Potter; Harry/many other students; explicit. Written for the
daily_deviant. 11,002 words, 38,521 hits. - Quill-It: Harry Potter; Harry/various and solo and friends; some of the constituent drabbles/ficlets/fics are explicit but many are not. 46,296 words, 27.917 hits.
- Three Men: Harry Potter; Harry/Remus/Severus; explicit. Co-written with
cruisedirector. 54,250 words, 27,221 hits. - Harry Potter Drabbles - Adult: Harry Potter; assorted het, slash, and poly pairings; explicit. 4903 words, 15,902 hits.
- Admittance: Harry Potter; Draco/Harry/Severus in varying combinations; explicit. Co-written with
cruisedirector. 134,026 words, 15,249 hits. - Better Than Revenge: Harry Potter; Draco/Harry and Hermione/Ron; explicit. 175,441 words, 13,294 hits.
- Three Is a Magic Number: Harry Potter; Draco/Hermione, Draco/Harry/Hermione, Hermione/Original Character; explicit. Written for the
hermionebigbang. 23,571 words, 9096 hits. - Heart of the Matter: Star Trek Alternate Original Series; Kirk/McCoy; explicit. 86,056 words, 9069 hits.
- Harry Potter Drabbles - Slash: Harry Potter; various slash & femslash pairings; teen. 19,064 words, 8702 hits.
- Fifth Marauder: Harry Potter; James/Lily/Remus/Sirius in varying combinations; explicit. Written for
snegurochka_lee. 3086 words, 7312 hits.
Top Ten by Kudos
- Notches on a Broomstick: 11,002 words, 447 kudos.
- Quill-It: 46,296 words, 386 kudos.
- Three Men: Co-written with
cruisedirector. 54,250 words, 345 kudos. - Harry Potter Drabbles - Adult: 4903 words, 266 kudos.
- Admittance: Co-written with
cruisedirector. 134,026 words, 242 kudos. - Better Than Revenge: 175,441 words, 130 kudos.
- Heart of the Matter: 86,056 words, 115 kudos.
- Three Is a Magic Number: 23,571 words, 102 kudos.
- Harry Potter Drabbles - Slash: 19,064 words, 98 kudos.
- Options: Harry Potter; Draco/Hermione and Draco/Harry/Hermione, explicit. Written for
inell. 4859 words,95 kudos.
Top Ten by Bookmarks
- Three Men: Co-written with
cruisedirector. 134,026 words, 94 bookmarks. - Admittance: Co-written with
cruisedirector. 134,026 words, 68 bookmarks. - Notches on a Broomstick 11,002 words, 61 bookmarks.
- Better Than Revenge: 175,441 words, 38 bookmarks.
- Heart of the Matter: 86,056 words, 35 bookmarks.
- Quill-It: 46,296 words, 34 bookmarks.
- Curing the Chosen One: Harry Potter; Draco/Harry/Severus in varying combinations; explicit. Co-written with
cruisedirector. 4914 words, 16 bookmarks. - Three Is a Magic Number: 23,571 words, 15 bookmarks.
- Truth and Consequences: Harry Potter; Harry/Percy; explicit. Written for
emiime. 7341 words, 14 bookmarks. - Harry Potter Drabbles - Adult: 4903 words, 13 bookmarks.
Top Ten by Comments
- Admittance: Co-written with
cruisedirector. 134,026 words, 35 comments. - Three Men: Co-written with
cruisedirector. 54,250 words, 32 comments. - Notches on a Broomstick: 11,002 words, 24 comments.
- Quill-It: 46,296 words, 23 comments.
- Lord of the Rings Drabbles - Gen: Lord of the Rings; various characters from LotR/The Hobbit/The Silmarillion; general. 4251 words, 18 comments.
- Forepoint: Sime~Gen; Hugh, Klyd, and Original Male/Original Male; teen. 7384 words, 16 comments.
- Better Than Revenge: 175,441 words, 13 comments.
- Heart of the Matter: 86,056 words, 12 comments.
- Dinner and Dessert: The King's Speech; Bertie/Elizabeth/Lionel/Myrtle, in varying combinations; explicit. 10,769 words, 11 comments.
- Taking Advantage: Harry Potter; Severus/Sirius; explicit. Written for the
daily_deviant. 2298 words, 10 comments.
Top Ten by Word Count
- Better the Instruction: Harry Potter; Remus/Stubby Boardman, Remus/Teddy, Teddy/Original Character; explicit. Co-written with
emiime. 186,620 words. - Better Than Revenge: 175,441 words.
- Passages: Lord of the Rings; Haldir/Melpomaen; explicit. 145,332 words.
- Admittance: Co-written with
cruisedirector. 134,026 words. - Heart of the Matter: 86,056 words.
- Three Men: Co-written with
cruisedirector. 54,250 words. - Courting the Lady: Lord of the Rings; Denethor/Finduilas, Aragorn; general. 54,018 words.
- Quill-It: 46,296 words.
- We Have an Accord: Pirates of the Caribbean; Elizabeth/Hector/James/Will, in varying combinations; explicit. Co-written with
cruisedirector. 36,596 words. - In His Brother's Shadow: Lord of the Rings; Boromir, Denethor, Faramir, Gandalf; general. 26,847 words.
The comments numbers for the co-written fics run higher because both
cruisedirector and I generally reply to all comments; which means that the solo fic comments numbers are also typically doubled from the actual readers' comments. But that's consistent throughout so the relative numbers still make sense.
The most-read, most-popular things tend to be on the longer side (which surprises me somewhat), and also explicit (which does not).
While Harry Potter fic gets notably more attention than the other fandoms, that may be partly because I've written so much more of it, too; somewhere in the vicinity of a million words, counting the co-written stories. Co-written works show up significantly more often in the top tens proportionate to their total percentage of my fics, but they also tend to be longer pieces (which as noted above are more popular). I am pleased that some of the other fandoms appear too, for instance The King's Speech and the Sime~Gen world, as well as Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Over the past few months I've reread some (though by no means all) of my own fic, both the solo and the co-written stuff. Mostly I think it holds up. Since the longer works were all posted chapter by chapter as they were written, the smuttier fics don't always work so well when read at one go; I find I get tired of it when there's sex in every (or nearly every) chapter.
Re: the longer fics, most of them if not all were originally intended as shorter one-shots (including the co-written pieces), but then grew unexpectedly. I know some people like to create detailed plots and have the whole idea of what will happen in the story worked out in advance, but for me, doing that tends to kill it. If I know what's going to happen, I'm less interested in actually writing it out. The extreme example of this might be Better Than Revenge, which was a <2400 word short story originally and turned into a >175,000 word novel.