Here’s the breakdown of 2025’s bingo!
Submissions are included in the stats as they were reported. In other words, while we do verify that works exist (as a side effect of compiling reading stats), we don’t check if they “count”. We also don’t police other aspects of the rules; we’re just happy you’re reading!
What got completed?
Cards
- 10 cards total (one person did two cards)
- 9 challenges completed
- review mode, 5 cards
- hard mode only, 2 cards
- regular mode only, 1 card
- TBR only, 1 card
Bingo Lines
- 85 bingos
- 5 cards with 12 bingos (“blackout”, all squares done)
- 1 with 10 bingos
- 1 with 7 bingos
- 1 with 5 bingos
- 1 with 3 bingos
- 1 with no bingos But they completed 10 squares, so that’s a win in my book!
- most completed bingos (each on 90% of cards): row 1, diagonal “&” (1A--5E)
- least completed bingo (on 50% of cards): column E
Squares
- 218 completed squares
- 201 squares contributed to a bingo (92.2% of completed squares)
- most completed squares (on 100% of cards): 1E (Now a Major Motion Picture), 3B (Title: [X] of [Y]), 3C (Off Your TBR Pile), 4D (Award Winner), 5E (Jerk with a Heart of Gold)
- least completed square (on 60% of cards): 3E (Saddle Up)
- least favorite square (according to survey): 2A (Independent Author)
- 106 completed hard mode squares (48.62% of completed squares)
- most completed hard modes (on 80% of cards): 5C (Late to the Party), 5E (Jerk with a Heart of Gold)
- least completed hard modes (on 20% of cards), excluding 5D (Cozy Read), which had no hard mode: 1A (Number in the Title), 1C (Featured Creature), 3A (Based on Folklore)
- 6 substituted squares (2.75% of completed squares)
- 50% of cards included a substitution (one person substituted twice): 4 were regular mode, 2 were hard mode
- no square was replaced more than once
- 1 square from 2024 (Water, Water Everywhere) was used as a substitution twice; the other squares used were Family Drama, It Takes Two, Older Than You Are, and There Is Another…
What did people read?
Works
Starred (*) categories have related squares this year.
- 208 unique works read (95.41% of completed squares)
- structure/length:
- 159 novel-length works (76.44% of unique works)
- 22 novellas* (10.58%)
- 16 prose anthologies or collections* (7.69%)
- 7 pictorial works (comics, graphic novels, manga, or picture books) (3.37%)
- 2 single short stories or essays* (0.96%)
- 2 verse works (epic poems, novels in verse, or dramatic verse) (0.96%)
- marketed audience:
- 171 adult works (82.21% of unique works)
- 29 YA works (13.94%)
- 8 middle grade works (3.85%)
- publishing:
- 195 traditionally published works (93.75% of unique works)
- 13 self-published works* (6.25%)
- original language:
- 193 English works* (92.79% of unique works)
- 15 non-English works* (read in the original language, or translated to English) (7.21%)
- series:
- 103 standalone works (49.52% of unique works)
- 55 works considered #1 in a series (26.44%)
- 50 prequels, sequels, or other works connected to a series (not #1) (24.04%)
Notable Content Tags
Works may be in multiple categories/subcategories. A space thriller with strong mystery and romance elements would be counted once for each of the following tags: speculative, space, suspenseful, mystery, thriller, and romantic.
Starred (*) tags have related squares this year.
- speculative: 147 (70.67% of unique works)
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general fantasy: 63 (30.29% of unique works)
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folklore*: 13 (6.25%)
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urban fantasy: 10 (4.91%)
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space: 23 (11.06%)
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dystopian: 22 (10.58%)
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general scifi: 21 (10.1%)
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- suspenseful: 82 (39.42%)
- mystery: 53 (25.48%)
- thriller: 31 (14.9%)
- horror/gothic: 29 (13.94%)
- war*: 11 (5.29%)
- espionage*: 5 (2.4%)
- historical: 37 (17.79%)
- literary/contemporary: 31 (14.9%)
- LGBTQIA+*: 30 (14.42%)
- romantic: 29 (13.94%)
- nonfiction: 19 (9.13%)
- memoir: 8 (3.85%)
- cozy*: 15 (7.21%)
- politics*: 13 (6.25%)
- feminism*: 7 (3.37%)
- social issues*: 7 (3.37%)
- humor: 11 (5.29%)
Publication Year
- before 1940: 6 (2.89% of unique works)
- 1940s: 1 (0.48%)
- 1950s: 5 (2.4%)
- 1960s: 9 (4.33%)
- 1970s: 2 (0.96%)
- 1980s: 9 (4.33%)
- 1990s: 7 (3.37%)
- 2000s: 18 (8.65%)
- 2010s: 68 (32.69%)
- 2020s: 83 (39.9%)
Most Read Titles
- 3 times: Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
- 2 times:
- 1984 by George Orwell
- All Systems Red by Martha Wells
- Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree
- The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
- A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
- Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
- Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
- Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko
Most Read Authors
Starred (*) authors were on the list last year, too.
- 6 works: Brandon Sanderson, Martha Wells
- 5 works: Suzanne Collins
- 4 works: Pierce Brown, John Scalzi
- 3 works: Becky Chambers*, T. Kingfisher, Sarah J. Maas, Nnedi Okorafor*
Historical Read Time Periods
- pre-1000s: 2
- “medieval”: 1 Couldn’t find a more exact century for this one.
- 1000s: 0
- 1100s: 0
- 1200s: 0
- 1300s: 1
- 1400s: 2
- 1500s: 0
- 1600s: 0
- 1700s: 3
- 1800s: 12
- 1900s: 16
What about specific squares (and participation)?
Judge a Book by Its Cover
A few of these had multiple covers; I hope I chose the right one for the graphic!
- Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot
- The Grip of It by Jac Jemc
- The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy
- The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James
- Lute by Jennifer Thorne
- My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine
- Soul Eater by Lily Mayne
- Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories by qntm
- The Wager by David Grann
Author from Another Continent
- 8 unique works
- 3 from Asia (37.5%)
- 3 from Europe (37.5%)
- 1 from North America (12.5%)
- 1 from Oceania (12.5%)
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Participation
- 9 people submitted cards
- 6 returning participants, 3 new
- 50% increase in Fediverse participation from last year
- 13 people joined the Storygraph challenge
- 4 returning participants, 9 new
- 85.71% increase in Storygraph participation from last year
Feedback
There were a couple of pieces of feedback we got at turn-in that we wanted to share our thoughts on:
Firstly, Independent Author was ranked the most difficult or disliked square for 2025. We’re definitely going to be looking at making it more accessible going forward.
Also, someone asked if we’d consider using Bookwyrm for future challenges. We absolutely like the idea of spreading bingo to more reading sites, but we don’t want to stretch ourselves too thin. Instead, our hope is that the community may eventually step in to provide resources like this (and maybe even take over the Storygraph challenge someday)! We’re happy to coordinate with projects, whether Bookwyrm lists, tracking spreadsheets, online tools, more discussion threads, or anything else you think might be helpful; just let us know.
(In case you’re wondering, the yearly list of book suggestions is actually a by-product of playtesting squares to make sure they’re doable! Storygraph has just always been the fastest, easiest way for us to share that work as a community resource.)
If you’d like to help make bingo, chat about resources, alert us to something cool you made for the challenge, or give feedback, please do comment here or DM me ( @misericordiae@literature.cafe ) or Jaymes ( @JaymesRS@piefed.world )!
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Data Visualization Font Credits: Parchment, by Photo-Lettering, Inc.; Noto Sans, by the Noto Project authors.
Oh wow, you went hard. I got through around 50 last year (which was way more than I'd planned, and not something I intend to try again), but only a few were over 400 pages, with maybe a dozen novellas.
Anything in the super-long range you read that you'd recommend? I'm always hesitant to pick up anything with a high page count b/c they often seem like they're long just to be long, and slow pacing and me don't mix.