Visual novel jam statistics

The two simplest statistics for a jam are the number of entries and number of participants, which can be determined directly from the jam pages (on itch.io).

For the purposes of statistics the numbers to take are the officially visible ones on the itch page, immediately after the jam is completed. Aside from the specific jam restrictions that influence the amount of people who can join, there are additional caveats to these numbers, such as:

• one VN submitted to multiple jams (either as the same version, or updated version of the original)
• not all team members joining the jam officially
• itch page displaying a number that doesn't correspond with the amount of visible entries (usually 1-2 entries off, e.g. the page may have 3 VNs visible, but the counter states 4 entries
• entries which don't follow the jam rules, but have been missed or are being tolerated by the jam hosts, which can lead to significant differences when counting "manually", e.g. 105 (official) vs. 91 (manual count) entries in NaNoRenO 2020 as appeared in the article What VN statistics tell us by mikey
• jams which allow the submission of pages without a link to a playable entry, these count towards the number of entries (at a later stage after the jam period they may indeed feature a playable entry)
• over time creators may choose to delete their games and pages, leading to innacuracies when revisiting old jams
• for any more nuanced statistics such as determining partial or full completion, and any qualitative features such as inclusion of voice acting, game length and similar, each entry must be examined and/or information gathered from the creator's pages, which will necessitate some level of editorializing and bias (e.g. what constitutes a "demo")

Most entries in a single jam

Rank	Count	Jam
1	210	Spooktober 2023
2	185	NaNoRenO 2022
3	161	NaNoRenO 2023
4	160	Spooktober 2022
5	155	O2A2 2023
6	152	NaNoRenO 2024
7	138	WinterJam 2022
8	115	SuNoFes 2022
9	112	Spooktober 2021
10	106	O2A2 2022
11	105	NaNoRenO 2020
12 (tie)	103	Otome Jam 2024
12 (tie)	103	O2A2 2023 Queer Edition
14	96	O2A2 2021
15 (tie)	88	NaNoRenO 2019
15 (tie)	88	NaNoRenO 2021
17	77	WinterJam 2021
18	75	NaNoRenO 2016
19	73	Winter Jam 2023
20 (tie)	71	NaNoRenO 2018
20 (tie)	71	Otome Jam 2023

Most participants in a single jam

Rank	Count	Jam
1	1391	SuNoFes 2024
2	1097	Spooktober 2023
3	965	SuNoFes 2022
4	891	NaNoRenO 2022
5	852	WinterJam 2022
6	811	Spooktober 2022
7	802	Otome Jam 2024
8	708	NaNoRenO 2023
9	678	SuNoFes 2021
10	535	Spooktober 2021
11	466	NaNoRenO 2024
12	465	WinterJam 2021
13	450	NaNoRenO 2020
14	439	NaNoRenO 2017
15	394	NaNoRenO 2021
16	380	Winter Jam 2023
17	373	YaoiJam 2022
18	368	SuNoFes 2020
19	364	O2A2 2024 (recorded before jam end)
20	335	Yuri Jam 2023

Cumulative VNs per jam

Rank	Count	Jam	Includes
1	1149	NaNoRenO	2024
2	541	Spooktober	2023
3	418	YuriJam	2023
4	386	SuNoFes	2023
5	376	O2A2	2023
6	311	WinterJam	2023
7	271	Otome Jam	2024
8	203	YaoiJam	2023
9	132	Josei Jam	2024
10	124	Yandere Jam	2024

Cumulative participants per jam

Rank	Count	Jam	Includes
1	4130	NaNoRenO	2015-2024
2	3997	SuNoFes	2024 (partial)
3	2680	Spooktober	2023
4	1965	YuriJam	2023
5	1803	WinterJam	2023
6	1634	Otome Jam	2024
7	1495	Yaoi Jam	2023
8	1267	O2A2	2024 (partial)
9	585	Yandere Jam	2024
10	533	Trans Representation Jam	2024 (partial)

Most participants per year

Year	1st	2nd	3rd
2023	Spooktober (1097)	NaNoRenO (708)	WinterJam (380)
2022	SuNoFes (965)	NaNoRenO (891)	WinterJam (852)
2021	SuNoFes (678)	Spooktober (535)	WinterJam (465)
2020	NaNoRenO (450)	SuNoFes (368)	YaoiJam (198)
2019	NaNoRenO (330)	YuriJam (177)	YaoiJam (84)
2018	YuriJam (251)	NaNoRenO (235)	YaoiJam (123)
2017	NaNoRenO (439)	YuriJam (325)	TyranoJam (320)
2016	NaNoRenO (178)	YuriJam (166)	YaoiJam (105)
2015	YuriJam (103)	TyranoJam (41)	NaNoRenO (39)

Most entries per year

Year	1st	2nd	3rd
2023	Spooktober (210)	NaNoRenO (161)	O2A2 (155)
2022	NaNoRenO (185)	Spooktober (160)	WinterJam (138)
2021	Spooktober (112)	O2A2 (96)	NaNoRenO (88)
2020	NaNoRenO (105)	SuNoFes (62)	Spooktober (44)
2019	NaNoRenO (88)	YuriJam (37)	BaraJam (19)
2018	NaNoRenO (71)	YuriJam (55)	Ren'Py Jam (27)
2017	NaNoRenO (68)	YuriJam (66)	TyranoJam (44)
2016	NaNoRenO (75)	YuriJam (56)	YaoiJam (19)
2015	NaNoRenO (34)	YuriJam (33)	TyranoJam (33)