(Fair disclaimer: I haven't been a fan of the show since 2013, but I have nothing against people who are.)
Somehow, when I made my post on the number of SpongeBob SquarePants entries 7 months ago (I counted 80), I thought certainly that show had more than the one that dominated this site from 2011 to 2013, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. With MLP clocking in at 102, I was clearly mistaken. On the other hand, I've long known the staggering image presence ponies have had on KYM (much larger than any other franchise, >230,000 of the >1.3 million total). So I've decided to collect some stats on both of them this time, instead of just entries like I usually do.
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ENTRIES
Some entries aren't easy to determine if they're "pony-related". I counted entries I deemed originally mostly associated with MLP or the Brony community, even if it spread elsewhere (like Thread Simulators). Since compiling this data, I regret not counting HotDiggedyDemon (of PONY.MOV fame) because he's done non-pony work, even though I counted The Living Tombstone who also hasn't exclusively done pony work (due to him being a key Brony musician and even having a ponysona). However, I stand by not counting Lauren Faust and Tara Strong since they've both had work since long before MLP:FiM.
(Note: I didn’t count any deadpooled entries, only submissions and confirmed ones.)
Status:
Confirmed: 27 (~26.5%)
Submission: 75 (~73.5%)
Year added:
2009: 1 (~1.0%)
2010: 0
2011: 27 (~26.5%)
2012: 14 (~13.7%)
2013: 12 (~11.8%)
2014: 2 (~2.0%)
2015: 31 (~30.4%)
2016: 11 (~10.8%)
2017: 4 (~3.9%)
Category:
Meme: __ 87 (~85.3%)
Subculture: 9 (~8.8%)
Event: ___ 3 (~2.9%)
Site: _____ 2 (~2.0%)
Person: __ 1 (~1.0%)
Character involved:
(24 characters, 69 entries; only counted if focused on one character)
1. Twilight Sparkle: _______ 9 (~13.0%)
2. Rainbow Dash: _______ 8 (~11.6%)
3. Fluttershy: ___________ 6 (~8.7%)
3. Rarity: ______________ 6 (~8.7%)
5. Pinkie Pie: ___________ 5 (~7.2%)
5. Derpy Hooves: ________ 5 (~7.2%)
7. Applejack: ___________ 4 (~5.8%)
8. Celestia: _____________ 3 (~4.3%)
8. DJ Pon-3 / Vinyl Scratch: 3 (~4.3%)
8. Lyra Heartstrings: _____ 3 (~4.3%)
11. Luna: ______________ 2 (~2.9%)
11. Sweetie Belle: _______ 2 (~2.9%)
11. Fluffle Puff: _________ 2 (~2.9%)
The other 11 characters are tied for 14th with 1 entry (~1.4%): Spike, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Discord, Big Macintosh, Tirek, Doctor Whooves / Time Turner, Party Favor, Lemon Hearts, Tom Dan, and Fausticorn.
Nature of meme:
(not every entry counted; each only in one category)
Character: 16 (fan-named/background: 5; fan-made: 2)
Face/pose/vector: 12
Exploitable: 10
Quote/phrase: 9
Fan art: 9
Character variant: 8
Game: 6
Brony term: 5
Fanfiction: 4
Controversy: 3
Remix fad: 3
Users by entries added:
(58 users; average ~1.76 pony entries per user)
1. Particle Mare: __________ 22 (~21.6%)
2. Cordyceps, Lord of Nothing: 5 (~4.9%)
2. RandomMan: ___________ 5 (~4.9%)
4. Platus: ________________ 4 (~3.9%)
4. Wesley: _______________ 4 (~3.9%)
6. Gabenus Trollucus: ______ 3 (~2.9%)
6. MediExcalibur2012: ______ 3 (~2.9%)
8. Epic Fail Guy is a Brony: __ 2 (~2.0%)
8. Peacock Roy: ___________ 2 (~2.0%)
8. Teh Brawler: ____________ 2 (~2.0%)
8. thememehelper: _________ 2 (~2.0%)
8. The Cute Master :3: ______ 2 (~2.0%)
The other 46 users are tied for 13th with 1 entry (~1.0%) (they don't get recognition).
Sources:
2 entries come from the Equestria Girls movie series: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls and Inside the Cake. 1 entry comes from the IDW comic book series: Nature is so Fascinating. 4 entries are inspired by something from before G4 (the current MLP era): The My Little Pony: The Princess Promenade Troll (the only entry before the MLP:FiM one and its airing), Rainbow Dash Always Dresses in Style, Who's A Silly Pony?, and Seaponies / Seapony Lyra. The other 95 entries come from MLP:FiM or its associated fandom.
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IMAGES:
At the time of typing this (as all totals will be), there are 1,213,086 images on KYM. Of these, the MLP:FiM gallery houses the most of any (219,195, ~18.1%), the second most being Pokémon (36,695, ~3.0% of all, ~16.7% of MLP:FiM's size).
To find the closest estimate to the total number of MLP images (not all of which are in the FiM gallery), I searched "my little pony" to get 230,478 (~19.0% of all). Of these, the FiM gallery has ~95.1% and the Equestria Girls gallery has 3,382 (~1.5%), while searching "equestria girls" gives 4,956 (~2.2%).
Character image ranks:
For each character, I go by how many images are tagged with their name (for those with 2 separated by a slash, I add the total of both of the tags and subtract the number of images with both of them as tags). I chose who I thought were the most popular characters, but I may have forgotten some, so I preemptively apologize. Percents are of the "my little pony" search total of 230,478 (though I realize they aren't the real percents as many images containing the characters aren't tagged).
1. Twilight Sparkle: ______ 21,432 (~9.3%)
2. Pinkie Pie: ___________ 16,740 (~7.3%)
3. Rainbow Dash: _______ 15,482 (~6.7%)
4. Fluttershy: ___________ 14,543 (~6.3%)
5. Rarity: ______________ 12,249 (~5.3%)
6. Applejack: ___________ 11,843 (~5.1%)
7. Luna: ________________ 8,780 (~3.8%)
8. Celestia: _____________ 7,235 (~3.1%)
9. Spike: _______________ 5,722 (~2.5%)
10. Derpy Hooves: _______ 4,967 (~2.2%)
11. Scootaloo: ___________ 4,192 (~1.8%)
12. Sweetie Belle: ________ 3,995 (~1.7%)
13. Apple Bloom: _________ 3,511 (~1.5%)
14. Lyra: _______________ 3,475 (~1.5%)
15. Discord: _____________ 3,353 (~1.5%) (may be inflated by the app)
16. Trixie: _______________ 3,298 (~1.4%)
17. Cadance / Cadence: ___ 2,252 (~1.0%)
18. Octavia: _____________ 2,142 (~0.9%)
19. DJ Pon-3 / Vinyl Scratch: 2,129 (~0.9%)
20. Sunset Shimmer: ______ 1,402 (~0.6%)
21. Shining Armor: _______ 1,397 (~0.6%)
