(And a whine.) 
Happy New Year! (And, Site Story-Publishing Statistics for 2023) · 6:11pm January 1st
Happy New Year! 
With the arrival of the new year comes the arrival of statistics to preserve for posterity. 
Totals for year-2023 published stories*:
Non-Mature Stories: 4512
Mature Stories: 1887
Total Stories: 6397
This exceeds last year's 6274 to 6343 total published stories.
Comparatively, in 2023, less Mature stories were published and more Non-Mature stories were published than in 2022.
The enormously successful A Thousand Words contest (~176 entries compared to ~106 in 2022) and the record numbers for Jinglemas participation (140 at last count, compared to ~113 in 2022), certainly contributed to this increase.
2022's Totals:
Non-Mature Stories: 4271
Mature Stories: 2003
Total Stories: 6274 to 6343 (due to a counting discrepancy at year-end, I have statistics for two days short of the total, so the final total lies somewhere between those two numbers. See this other blog entry for details.)
Search Logic
(published:>2023-1-1 AND published:<2024-1-1)**
** 2024/1/6 update: Thank you to Ghost Mike for pointing out that it is better to run these numbers one day past the end of the year because the site's search logic does not include the end date of a range. I updated the numbers. Apparently two mature stories were deleted between 1/1 and 1/6, so those numbers are included in the above. It is possible a story posted on the last day of 2023 was deleted before 1/6, but unlikely, so these numbers should be fairly accurate. [Numbers for 2023 before today's update: 4499 (non mature) + 1881 (mature) = 6380 (total). Updated numbers are above.]
*Totals may vary somewhat depending on people's time zones. Stories are also removed from the site, from time to time.
Wonder how much is that in hours (more like days) of reading
5761900
Wonder no more because according to FimFic's statistics on the right side bar when the search is run:
For 2023-published stories:
6,380 stories
Total Words: 71,802,661
Estimated Reading: 28 weeks
For 2022-published stories:
6,001 stories
Total Words: 92,905,340
Estimated Reading: 36 weeks
This year's stories clock in at less words, lending support to the hypothesis that the Thousand Words contest and Jinglemas were key drivers in the increase. However, just because a story was published in 2022 does not mean all of its words were written in 2022. The stories published in 2022 may have had chapters added to them in subsequent years. This could be an interesting statistic to track--seeing how the word count grows as stories from a particular year are supplemented by additional chapters.
Ghost Mike made a suggestion for improving the tallies, discussed above in the 2025/1/6 update. The numbers have therefore also been updated! Thank you, GhostPonyMike!
As a near-mid-year update:
2024-published stories:
2182 stories total
1527 Non-Mature
655 Mature
Total Words: 20,995,373
Estimated Reading: 8 weeks
2023-published stories:
6248 stories total (189 less than last report)
4406 Non-Mature (106 less than last report)
1842 Mature (45 less than last report)
Total Words: 82,585,577 (+10,782,916 since last report)
Estimated Reading: 32 weeks (+4 weeks since last report)
2022-published stories:
5945 stories total (56 less than last report)
4072 Non-Mature (199 less than last report)
1842 Mature (45 less than last report)
* Note, the 2022-numbers do not add up correctly to the January 1st numbers in comment 2 below or in the main blog post. I am not sure why. It may be compiler error or due to some stories being de-listed. At least one prolific Mature story publisher took some stories offline around the 2024 new year. Thus, the "less than last report" numbers for 2022 may not be reliable.
Total Words: 95,079,594 (+2,174,254 words)
Estimated Reading: 37 weeks (+1 week)
2021-published stories:
7253 stories total.
Total Words: 114,166,709
Estimated Reading: 45 weeks
2020-published stories:
8431 stories total.
Total Words: 150,661,352
Estimated Reading: 59 weeks
2019-published stories:
8811 stories total.
Total Words: 155,561,074
Estimated Reading: 61 weeks
2018-published stories:
9310 stories total
Total Words: 168,943,495
Estimated Reading: 67 weeks
2017-published stories:
10661 stories total
Total Words: 184,792,473
Estimated Reading: 73 weeks
2016-published stories:
12802 stories total
Total Words: 215,418,987
Estimated Reading: 85 weeks
2015-published stories:
15749 stories total
Total Words: 266,551,437
Estimated Reading: 105 weeks
2014-published stories:
20063 stories total
Total Words: 308,141,107
Estimated Reading: 122 weeks
2013-published stories:
21691 stories total
Total Words: 367,282,619
Estimated Reading: 145 weeks
2012-published stories:
21609 stories total
Total Words: 386,269,323
Estimated Reading: 153 weeks
2011-published stories:
2205 stories total
Total Words: 52,993,193
Estimated Reading: 21 weeks