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Howdy Poptropicans! It’s LJ here to bring you the awaited 2021 PHB Readers’ Survey results and analysis.

Last month, I announced our annual survey where we ask a selection of questions related to you and your experiences with Poptropica and the PHB in order to get to know you better. Over the duration of three weeks we amassed a total of 115 responses! Here’s what we came up with…

Which of our past surveys did you participate in?

To start, we like to ask which of our past surveys you’ve partaken in. As usual, the percentage gets smaller as you go back through the years — however, 2014 has increased from last year (perhaps there are more people revisiting). On the flip side, a big portion of you said this was your very first time participating: the biggest percentage of new readers yet. Welcome!

What is your gender?

Gender-wise, females dominate our viewer base with almost double the amount of males. The gap is a little smaller though. Females make up 62% and males make up 30%. Our viewers that identify as something other than male or female is about the same with just over 7%.

What is your age?

15-18 year-olds remain the largest group at 30% and the 22 or older group remains the smallest with a mere 5%. For the first time ever, the 6-11 year-olds have surpassed the 12-14 year-olds and the 19-21 group has dropped from second to fourth as compared to 2020.

What country do you live in?

The United States continues to be the nation where most of our readers live by a wide margin, followed by Canada, India, Great Britain, and Australia, in that order. Although the numbers may be small, it’s cool to see that we reach people from all around the globe — especially in Europe and Asia! Maybe we’ll see African and South American countries again next time.

If you live in the US, which state or territory do you live in?

For those of you who are in the US (which includes about 67% of you), we asked which state you lived in for a more thorough idea of where you guys are located. California takes the number one spot with 11 survey responders residing there, which makes sense considering the golden state has the highest population in the country. In a surprising twist, though, North Carolina comes in second with 7 people beating out Georgia, which has 6, as well as Florida and New York which each have 5. Texas is also home to 5 PHB readers who took the survey.

When did you discover Poptropica?

Next, we have the Poptropica/PHB-related questions. First we asked when you discovered Poptropica. 2020 was surprisingly the #1 answer with a whopping 16%! (Maybe the pandemic had something to do with that?) 2012 comes next at about 10% with 2008, 2011, and 2019 not too far behind at nearly 9%. It’s also worth noting that one of our survey takers discovered the game only this year in 2021. I totally didn’t expect these results at all, but I’m happy there are a lot of new players!

How often do you play Poptropica?

So we know when you guys discovered Poptropica, but how often do you play it? It looks like most of you are playing either a few times a day or a few times a week — two of the more frequent options — which is more often than any other year of respondents. Overall, though, all of the sections are pretty equal.

Are you a member on Poptropica?

As for membership, the sections are not so equal. Over 84% of Poptropicans currently do not have membership. About 25% of those non-members used to be members whereas about 20% plan to become one sometime in the future. The biggest percentage (38%), however, goes to those who answered “never have and never will”. The remaining 16% are paying members.

When did you first find the PHB?

Now, we asked about when you found the PHB. These results also shocked me. More of you found the PHB in the last 4 years (2018-2021) than the 10 years (2008-2017) prior, and by a lot too! 2020 stands at first with almost 24% alone and 2021 stands at second with 15%. It’s great to have all of you new readers join us! Most of the lowest percentages belong to 2008, 2009, and 2010 respectively.

How did you find us?

As usual, a large majority of you found us through searching the web, presumably searching for island guides. Although all of the other options are miniscule in comparison, I think it’s still interesting to see that we’ve caught people’s attention in various different ways. At an increase from previous years, 14% found us through another website which could be attributed to the Poptropica creators featuring some of our posts on the Creators’ Blog.

How often do you visit the PHB?

When it comes to how often you guys visit the PHB, the three most regular choices are the ones with the highest amount of answers and that makes me quite happy. 😊 “A few times a week” garnered 30% of the answers, “a few times a day” got 27%, “once a day” got 20%, and after that it’s pretty much chronological.

What types of PHB posts do you enjoy?

Poptropica news remains to be our most popular post category with over three quarters of readers saying they enjoy those kinds of posts. Next, with 55%, would be Spotted Dragon’s Community Creations series, with contests very close behind at 54%. Pop 5 lists, Reviews, and Maryann’s The Villain Saga (a new and ongoing fan fiction) are also very favored.

Besides the PHB, what portions of the Poptropica Help Network (PHN) do you regularly browse?

A fewer number of participants answered the question about our Poptropica Help Network facets, but still a good amount nonetheless. The Poptropica Wiki continues to be the most visited, though its current connection to the PHN is ambiguous since our partnership was first formed when the wiki was hosted on Wikia (now known as Fandom, where the current Pop Wiki is hosted). The PHC comes second, and the We-Love-Poptropica DeviantArt group afterward.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Your feedback is of the greatest importance to us, and what better way to get that through the long answer text box? Here are a few of the comments we received, and our responses:

I love to have competitions and psst!!…it’s me DD or Dangerous Dragon!

A good amount of you said something similar, and that’s evident based off the 54% on the chart about which PHB posts you enjoyed. Since posting the survey, we’ve had a fun Guess That Poptropican contest (answers here), and another one is on its way! We also have other contests planned for the near future. Stay tuned!

I’d like to see more stuff on hidden facts about islands that we don’t realize. like how Survival was based on The Most Dangerous Game, or how Pelican Rock was based off Alcatraz island. That would be really interesting 😀

We love references like these! We’ve covered the similarities between Escape from Pelican Rock and Alcatraz Island as part of our Pop Places IRL series, as well as written about The Most Dangerous Game and Survival Island. Plus, each of our Island Guides comes with a trivia section for more fun facts. You might wanna check them out!

Can you tell me how to access the other episodes of Poptropicon, Survival, etc. (besides just the first one) on Poptropica.com? I have looked and I just don’t see a way and when I browse the internet about it nothing comes up. But I know they exist, soooo, yeah.

You can play the other episodes of all episodic islands on the Poptropica mobile app! But if you want to play them on your computer, you’ll need to use the unofficial Flashpoint version of Poptropica, accessible through idk’s Old Island Directory which we link to on the PHB’s Glitching page. Right now, it’s only available for Windows, but support for Mac and Linux may happen in the future.

When will there be another island added to Poptropica’s website?

Just to clarify, we are not an official Poptropica site — just devoted players like yourself. However, we do have some details. Though we don’t have an exact date to look forward to, the first winner of Poptropica’s Dream Island contest, Fairy Tale Island, is set to release before this summer (if the creators keep their word this time). We even have sneak peeks!

I would like to see some more parties and contests on the PHB.

Not only do we have more contests coming soon, but we also have a few exciting parties lined up. Get ready to party it up over the next few months! It’s going to be a blast. 🎉

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That concludes this year’s survey analysis! I hope this was as insightful for you as it was for me.

What did you think of the results? I definitely have a better idea of the content you want to see going forward.

Thank you for participating and thank you for reading as always. I expect for you to join me in the 2022 readers’ survey too. 😉 Pop on!

– LJ 🍀