We carried out this research in conjunction with our February Webinar, Romantasy: Finding Trends In Social And Non-Social Sources. While this brief represents just a small snippet of our findings, if you’d like to see all of our research, watch the video link. We hope you enjoy the recording.
Romantasy, or the combination of romance novels with a fantasy kick (think werewolves, vampires, dragons, and elves), has exploded in popularity across the United States. This genre of books, led by Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses and Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing, has been amplified by #BookTok and #Booksgram, with the authors’ social following being a driving force for the genre’s growth. At the time of authorship, Yarros’ new book, Onyx Storm, is the bestselling book in the United States.
Figure 1: Post Volume showing growth of Romantasy-related #BookTok and #Bookstagram hashtags (February 2020 through January 2020); Infegy Social Dataset.
To examine the growth of Romantasy, we’ll take a two-pronged approach. We have written extensively about analyzing both custom and Infegy’s social datasets. However, we have not yet spoken about the power of studying both in conjunction with the same analytical product. This type of dual analysis gives you a broad, general picture of the fastest-growing genre of books in the United States and highlights the raw insights from what readers thought after reading books. We look at this pattern almost like a marketing funnel where the broad insights represent top-of-funnel leads with generalized viewpoints around a particular book, with more bottom-of-funnel results being the actual reviews that readers write after leaving the book. Let's examine the analysis with these two important yet very different perspectives.
First, let’s take a look at what Infegy’s award-winning social dataset said about the growth of Romantasy. As mentioned before, this pertains to more top-of-funnel awareness versus hyper-specific thoughts about the genre.
Our first stop to validate a trend occurs with post volume. Post volume gives you significant indications of how big a trend has gotten along with its growth rate. Figure 1 shows the growth of the term “Romantasy” in Infegy’s Social Dataset. As far as we can tell, the term didn’t really exist in common parlance before September 2023. This graph shows us a dual-peaked graph with the first peak around March 2023 (Rebecca Yarros’ Onyx Storm was announced) and another in January 2025, when many people in the mainstream finally noticed Romantasy’s growth. We expect to see Romantasy grow even further based on this growth rate.
Figure 2: Post Volume of Romantasy (January 2022 through January 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.
While post volume helps you validate a trend, you should use other indicators to predict trends as well. One top indicator for predicting trends is emotions - (10 algorithmically detected feelings using Infegy IQ that social media users expose when they write). We use anticipation as a proxy for future growth around a particular conversation. We’ve shown that a growing share of anticipation predicts a high likelihood of future conversational growth.
Figure 2 shows that same projection within the context of our Romantasy discussion. You’ll note that just before the peak in late 2024, we see a growing share of anticipation in August. In January 2025, we see a large share of anticipation, leading us to believe that the Romantasy genre is in for even more growth into 2025.
Figure 3: Emotional Share of Conversation for Romantasy (January 2022 through January 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.
We briefly examined the research we’ve done with Infegy’s Social Dataset. Now, let’s pivot to what readers say about the books after reading them. These reviews represent hyper-specific thoughts of what invested readers thought about the genre and the books.
First, let’s take a look at review counts by month. You’ll note similar patterns to what we saw in Figure 1: a sharp positive growth rate. However, you’ll note the curve looks a bit different here - the growth from Infegy’s Social dataset was a bit flatter, suggesting a more organic growth pattern. Goodreads data, on the other hand, shows a sharp surge from 2024 into 2025. This indicates that Romantasy went mainstream during that period, undoubtedly aided by mainstream news coverage, which tends to lag social data.
Figure 4: Exponential growth of Goodreads Reviews Of Romantasy (July 2017 through January 2025); Custom Dataset.
Now, let’s examine the review volume aggregated by author level. As expected, the trend mirrors the sharp growth seen in Figure 3 and on social media. This highlights a typical pattern in book genres—dominance by a few major authors. In Romantasy, figures like Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros account for a significant share of reviews, serving as entry points for new readers. Fans who start with A Court of Thorns and Roses, for example, often explore deeper into the genre, discovering other Romantasy titles along the way.
Figure 5: Count of Authors By Month (July 2017 through January 2025); Custom Dataset.
Up to this point, we've focused on aggregate metrics from Goodreads reviews. Now, let's explore the language itself. Using Infegy's AI-driven summaries, we extract key narratives and themes from the reviews, providing a high-level overview without the need to sift through hundreds of thousands of individual comments. For authors, publishers, and advertising professionals, these insights can be invaluable for shaping content and strategy.
Figure 6: Reader Experience Narrative from A Court of Thorns and Roses’ AI Summary; Custom Dataset.
Romantasy’s rapid ascent, fueled by both social media virality and enthusiastic reader engagement, showcases the power of analyzing trends through multiple data sources. By combining Infegy's Social Dataset with custom Goodreads review analysis, we gain a holistic view of how this genre emerged, expanded, and continues to thrive.
Social data offers early signals of cultural shifts, highlighting broad awareness and anticipation, while review data provides in-depth, targeted insights into reader experiences and genre preferences. Together, these perspectives allow authors, publishers, and marketing teams to anticipate demand, refine messaging, and better engage with audiences.
As Romantasy continues its upward trajectory, leveraging both social and non-social data will be essential for staying ahead of the curve. Whether you're tracking emerging trends, assessing audience sentiment, or identifying key influencers, this dual-layered approach offers a powerful way to turn insights into action.
Social and non-social data reveal different stages of trend growth – Social media data captures early buzz and anticipation, while review data provides deeper insights into reader sentiment and long-term engagement.
Romantasy’s rise is driven by key authors and viral communities – Figures like Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros, amplified by #BookTok and #Bookstagram, play a central role in bringing new readers into the genre.
Anticipation signals can predict future growth – A rising share of anticipation in social conversations often precedes major surges in popularity, making it a valuable metric for forecasting trends.