About
Fandometrics is the result of our efforts to compile a database of Tumblr’s most talked-about entertainers and entertainments, and track the shifts in our users’ collective conversations. Every week, our Content team puts together a list of the most frequently used tags on the platform, accounting for the following criteria:
How many posts were created that contain the tag
How many times that tag was searched for
How many times a post using that tag was reblogged
How many times a post using that tag was liked
Our system sorts each tag into one of the nine Fandometrics categories. If the tag is unknown, we assign a category to it.
Within those categories, each fandom is ranked based on the weighted mean of the four actions listed. The factors by which we weight them are a secret, but basically we’re accounting for the fact that, for example:
Some of these actions are performed more frequently than others. For example, searches are performed more often than original posts are created.
Some of these actions are more visible than others, and more likely to produce additional actions. Posts and reblogs, for example, will be seen by many people across the blog network. Searches, conversely, are between you and your computer.
To make a long story short: We weight and normalize the number of actions to create a more accurate picture of each fandom’s influence across Tumblr, without sentiment.
Fresh rankings are posted every Monday between 2:30 and 4 PM EST.
Fandometrics is also the system we use for Tumblr’s annual Year in Review. Want a blast from the past? Dive in below.