Visual novel jam statistics

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	105	NaNoRenO 2020
4	96	O2A2 2021
5	88	NaNoRenO 2019
5	88	NaNoRenO 2021
7	77	WinterJam 2021
8	75	NaNoRenO 2016
9	71	NaNoRenO 2018
10	69	SuNoFes 2021
11	68	NaNoRenO 2017
12	66	YuriJam 2017
13	62	SuNoFes 2020
14	56	YuriJam 2016
15	56	OtomeJam 2022
16	55	YuriJam 2018
17	51	Valentine's Jam 2021
18	44	TyranoJam 2017
19	44	Spooktober 2020
20	37	YuriJam 2019

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	368	SuNoFes 2020
10	330	NaNoRenO 2019
11	325	YuriJam 2017
12	320	TyranoJam 2017
13	***	YaoiJam 2022 (ongoing)
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 (2021)

Rank	Count	Jam
1	651	NaNoRenO
2	306	YuriJam
3	183	SuNoFes
4	171	Spooktober
5	135	YaoiJam
6	116	O2A2
7	100	WinterJam
8	94	TyranoJam
9	47	NonbinaryJam
10	41	Otome Jam

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)	OtomeJam (56)	YandereJam (21)
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)