Visual novel jam statistics
From VNDev Wiki
Statistics gathered from jams have multiple caveats, such as one VN submitted to multiple jams, not all team members formally joining the jam, various sizes of resulting VNs, varied parameters of jams, and more. The two simplest statistics are the number of entries and number of participants, which can be determined directly from the jam pages (on itch.io).
Some of these issues are described in more detail in a 2021 article by mikey called What VN statistics tell us.
For the purposes of statistics the numbers to take are the officially visible ones on the itch page, immediately after the jam is completed. There are multiple caveats to these numbers, such as:
- 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")
Below are the main VN jam statistcs:
Most entries in a single jam
| Rank | Count | Jam |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 185 | NaNoRenO 2022 |
| 2 | 112 | Spooktober 2021 |
| 3 | 106 | O2A2 2022 |
| 4 | 105 | NaNoRenO 2020 |
| 5 | 96 | O2A2 2021 |
| 6 | 88 | NaNoRenO 2019 |
| 7 | 88 | NaNoRenO 2021 |
| 8 | 77 | WinterJam 2021 |
| 9 | 75 | NaNoRenO 2016 |
| 10 | 71 | NaNoRenO 2018 |
| 11 | 69 | SuNoFes 2021 |
| 12 | 68 | NaNoRenO 2017 |
| 13 | 66 | YuriJam 2017 |
| 14 | 62 | SuNoFes 2020 |
| 15 | 56 | YuriJam 2016 |
| 16 | 56 | OtomeJam 2022 |
| 17 | 55 | YuriJam 2018 |
| 18 | 51 | Valentine's Jam 2021 |
| 19 | 44 | TyranoJam 2017 |
| 20 | 44 | Spooktober 2020 |
Most participants in a single jam
| Rank | Count | Jam |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | *** | SuNoFes 2022 (ongoing) |
| 2 | 891 | NaNoRen0 2022 |
| 3 | 678 | SuNoFes 2021 |
| 4 | 535 | Spooktober 2021 |
| 5 | 465 | WinterJam 2021 |
| 6 | 450 | NaNoRenO 2020 |
| 7 | 439 | NaNoRenO 2017 |
| 8 | 394 | NaNoRenO 2021 |
| 9 | *** | YaoiJam 2022 (ongoing) |
| 10 | 368 | SuNoFes 2020 |
| 11 | 330 | NaNoRenO 2019 |
| 12 | 325 | YuriJam 2017 |
| 13 | 320 | TyranoJam 2017 |
| 14 | 259 | Valentines Jam 2021 |
| 14 | 259 | YaoiJam 2021 |
| 16 | 251 | YuriJam 2018 |
| 17 | 235 | NaNoRenO 2019 |
| 18 | 224 | OtomeJam 2022 |
| 19 | 196 | SuNoFes 2017 |
| 20 | 189 | YaoiJam 2020 |
Cumulative VNs per jam
| Rank | Count | Jam | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 836 | NaNoRenO | 2022 |
| 2 | 306 | YuriJam | 2021 |
| 3 | 222 | O2A2 | 2022 |
| 4 | 183 | SuNoFes | 2021 |
| 5 | 171 | Spooktober | 2021 |
| 6 | 135 | YaoiJam | 2021 |
| 7 | 100 | WinterJam | 2021 |
| 8 | 97 | Otome Jam | 2022 |
| 9 | 94 | TyranoJam | 2022 |
| 10 | 61 | NonbinaryJam | 2022 |
Most participants per year
| Year | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | SuNoFes (***) | NaNoRenO (891) | YaoiJam (***) |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | NaNoRenO (185) | O2A2 (106) | OtomeJam (56) |
| 2021 | Spooktober (112) | O2A2 (96) | NaNoRenO (88) |
| 2020 | NaNoRenO (105) | SuNoFes (62) | Spooktober (44) |
| 2019 | NaNoRenO (88) | YuriJam (37) | BarJam (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) |
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