Webtoon's messed up popularity algorithm

[scythe]

If anyone understands the specifics of how such things work, I'd love to get an explanation here.

Currently I'm on page 18 of Popularity for the Fantasy Genre, wedged between a comic with 5 subs, 160 views and one episode. On the other side is one with 130 subs, 4.6k views and a handful of updates.

My comic has 7.4k subs, 235k views and I've been updating fairly regularly there since May 2016.

So what's the deelio? Is my comic really THAT unpopular that it's about as viewed as brand new ones with no audience?

I'm guessing it's got to do with ratios or updating frequencies something like that, but I'm hoping someone out there actually knows.

[Zugaikotsu]

This is seriously weird. For what i've known about your comic, you update it often, at least every 2 weeks, right? Page 18 would be worthy of a comic who toke more than 14 days without updating.

Hmmm... if im not mistaken, the ratio is something with your number of vieews and likes for the last update, and overall views and numberof updates. What i noticed is that they really bury you if you have too few likes/views comparing to your total subs. That is why we see comics with 1k subs doing better then comics with 5k, if the 5k one has a smaller count of views/likes. Webtoons favors pretty much new series.

[MrDaaark]

Just 2 guesses.

It could be the most popular over a small period of time. Say a day or a week, or even just the last 6 hours. Or it may be just made up, sprinkling in newer series to get more views.

Also since your series is more established, it benefits them to position two series that aren't as established on either side. Just like when you walk in a store and the shiny new top tier release is on display front and center (AKA an anchor). You have the other new releases for the week on the sides to bring attention to them as well. This increases sales / page views.

It's a page view business. Everything on the site is designed to get you clicking on more comics, subscribing to them, and coming back every day to view more pages.

[scythe]

All good points, especially this one:

What i noticed is that they really bury you if you have too few likes/views comparing to your total subs.

This would make sense for my comic because it's been promoted a number of times by the site, which gave me a slew of new subscribers, but not a comparative amount of new engagement. What I'm thinking is a lot of those new subscribers were featured comic readers who liked the look of my comic, subscribed but then either forgot about it or couldn't put up with my slower-than-featured update schedule, so just disengaged.

Cheers guys!

[PervertOldMan]

Some rules you should know.
1/ No update after a week = out of Weekly Hot list.
2/ No update after 2 weeks = out of Popular by Genre list.
3/ Update new episode = Refresh your popular ranking, your new rank will be recaculated by the new views and likes you get from that point, It will take a while for you to climb back to your normal rank. This should be your case.

[scythe]

Thanks! That actually makes a lot of sense.

[Kotopopi]

I would also like to add a personal thought, cause I've been promoted several times as well and like you I have been puzzled by my popularity rank (behind way less popular series).

I have 14k subs but I struggle getting more than 300 likes per update.

I see series with half subs getting double the likes.

I made some experiments and if I make an episode designed to push people to like and write comments they do it, otherwise they forget or don't bother.

My conclusion is that (also taking into account everything that has been said so far, that it accurate) also your viewership matter. To put it simply: if your audience is really young you might have more chances to get more comments and likes.
If you're comic doesn't cover controversial topics, doesn't ask for readers' advice directly or indirectly and appeal to an older audience, it simply won't automatically get as mush engagement.

As a creator and someone who knows the struggles of creating engagement, I myself forget to put a like or a comment even when it is totally worthy it. It's just because I'm in my 30s and I don't spend much time on social media and this is just not natural to me -_-

I hope this help. Cheers!

[scythe]

It really does help, thanks. I think a lot of those things do apply to my own comic, so that adds to a decent explanation. It's had me scratching my head, but it's all starting to make sense now.

[scythe]

Your third point must be bang on because a day after my update I've risen back to page 14, which puts me alongside more comics with similar stats.

[hades]

I feel like this is an odd algorithm meant to boost comics but...being a bit messy at best. It feels more like a trending section then what is longstanding popular.

Don't take it to heart! Your work is fine!
I feel like a lot of WT creators is still struggling off and on with the view and engagement front still.