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| Priapus of Milet - Antechamber 12 (from Inner Sanctum 4) |
Above, art by this year's winner. A scene from Antechamber (The Inner Sanctum 4) by Priapus in which a naked explorer (who looks remarkably like a bulked-up version of a well-known royal) wanders into a derelict Underground (Subway) station and runs into scary, mechanical skeletons who put him into chains and enslave him. Should have stayed with the wife!
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According to my Blogger 'hit stats', out of all the mitchmen articles published to date,
According to my Blogger 'hit stats', out of all the mitchmen articles published to date,
those registering the most total hits since publication to the end of 2021 are as shown below.
Table 1 mitchmen Articles With Most Hits Since Publication to end 2021
Posn (last yr) | Title of Post (& link) | Year of Pub'n | 2021 Hits | 2020 Hits |
1 (1) | 2012 | 38,605 | 35489 | |
2 (5) | 2018 | 35,606 | 23619 | |
3 (4) | 2017 | 34,032 | 24101 | |
4 (2) | 2010 | 30,985 | 28452 | |
5 (3) | 2008 | 30,958 | 27569 | |
6 (9) | 2018 | 21,017 | 14966 | |
7 (6) | 2009 | 20,856 | 19546 | |
8 (7) | 2016 | 19,420 | 17450 | |
9 (8) | 2010 | 18,111 | 17223 | |
10 (13) | 2018 | 17,487 | 10091 | |
11 (10) | 2009 | 14,687 | 13801 | |
12 (11) | 2010 | 13,122 | 12084 | |
13 (12) | 2009 | 12,401 | 11253 | |
14 (14) | 2015 | 11,569 | 9924 | |
15 (-) | 2019 | 10,850 | 7335 | |
16 (15) | 2009 | 10,260 | 9536 | |
17 (16) | 2009 | 10,201 | 9040 | |
18 (-) | 2018 | 9808 | (7856) | |
19 (20) | 2009 | 9504 | 8359 | |
20 (19) | 2012 | 9338 | 8447 |
Stats compiled 31/12/21
This year Priapus of Milet – 1 retained the No 1 position in this table for the third year running but his lead was drastically reduced from 7K to 3K hits by the 'article of the year', which was IFNB – A Fantasy World of Bodybuilder Morphs which scored a near-record 11K hits during 2021. At the present rate IFNB will take over the number 1 spot next year. I am pleasantly surprised by the enormous interest in this article which in most weeks is at or near the top of the 'Popular Posts' gadget at mitchmen blog (in the right hand side bar). This may partly be due to the disappearance of the original IFNB blog for reasons only it's author will know.
The Priapus article which stays at No 1 for another year relates to some of his early work but is still scoring heavily. Priapus continues to produce stunning new imagery over at Telemachus12 and Patreon, like the image I've chosen to top this post. I don't rule out posting another mitchmen feature on him like 'Shooting The Past' last year.
In third place The Milking Factory (lead article in the popular series) continued it's rise, as I predicted last year, and Milking Factories–3 also jumped to sixth place with Milking Factories-4 also breaking into the top 20 at fifteen (up from 28 last year). I'm finding it harder to find new images to stimulate this series so it will be interesting to see if these challengers continue to make similar progress in the coming year.
Two long-standing stalwarts of this table filled fourth and fifth places, A-Z of Fetish Artists – Mike Carcel (a former winner) andA-Z of Fetish Artists – Cavelo. Both dropped two places, elbowed aside by the two new upstarts but there's a big gap below them down to 7th place and their scores in 2021 suggest it won't be easy for anyone else to get past for a while. Cavelo narrowed the gap between the two of them in their private running battle and is on course to overtake Mike Carcel in 2022, but neither are in the running for top spot any longer. The destruction of Yahoo! Groups seems to have taken down the fan clubs for these artists with it, but if anyone knows better please let me know via the comments facility.
Further down the table, a group of eight more posts about well-established and veteran artists all dropped one position in response to the rise of newer art - Jotto, Etienne, Malex, Franco, Martin of Holland, The Hun, Heredia and Julius. Two other significant artists dropped out of the chart altogether this year - 'demonic'Sean Platter and Leo. The Etienne - Index of articles at mitchmen which caused such a sensation last year wasn't able to repeat that performance in 2021 but managed to keep it's position in the top 10. The hit rates of all of this group dropped significantly this year, except for Martin of Holland whose score rose fractionally.
Kalabro is another member of the 'well-established' band and he managed to improve his position, from 20 to 19 this year. He scored marginally more hits than in 2020 (possibly helped by his role in inspiring the Milking Factory phenomenon). Unfortunately his total decamp to Patreon has made his exciting art more difficult to access.
The other surprise of 2020, Homoeros Gallery Guide continued scoring at a substantial rate in 2021 which lifted it to 10th place and will get it significantly higher if repeated in 2022 (much to my bemusement, I must admit!). It was joined in the top 20 by another article on the same artist, Homoeros – 6 (Art of The Cross), a subject which for me is the meat of this artist's work and clearly popular with others too. Crucifixion also featured in theArt of Roa, the No 2 new post of 2021.
Like Etienne and Homoeros last year,My Initiation also had a spell of inexplicable, euphoric support a few years back, but now clocks up more mundane counts. It actually had a better year in 2021, however, which enabled it to cling on to 20th place, but is still in danger of being ousted from the top 20 next time. It is still the only photograph-based article in the chart unless you count the photo manips of IFNB and Priapus.
Last but not least, hanging on to 14th position (much to my delight), was A Christmas Criminal by Mitchell (1-5). It is the most successful of my 'own work' posts at mitchmen and did better than the ebbing fortunes of other mid-table articles, but is equally menaced by newcomers coming up below.
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The entry level to this all-time top 20 is now 9338, about a thousand up on last year. It's sobering to reflect that this total is more than four times the score of the 2021, New Post winner, Come and Get It!. However, the previous year's runaway hits The Art of BrosFate – 3 and The Art of Amalaric – 1 A Slave To Passion however are fast approaching in at Nos 28 and 40 respectively. Both have a chance of getting in the all-time top 20 next time.
All of the older articles which still make up the bulk of this table were originally posted when the levels of visitors to mitchmen were much lower than they are now, which makes it all the more remarkable that so many are still holding off the 'new order'. Their on-going scores are probably helped by the mitchmen 'Index of Artists' page which reached 65,018 hits at the end of 2021 (more than 23% up from last time). This would have earned it top spot in this ranking if I counted it as a post.
mitchmen bog was first published in 2008 and nine of the fourteen years since then are still represented in this survey, the missing years between 2008 and 2021 are shown below
- 2013 – The nearest is still my 2nd article on Mike Carcel but it slid again to 46 from 44
- 2014 - The Art of Baron is at 24 (23)
- 2020 - BrosFate - 3 is at 28 (up from 98)
- 2021 - Come and Get It! entered the list at 223 only 6 months after publication.
Average hit rates
The total cumulative hits method I use for assessing the all-time popularity table is obviously biased towards older articles which have had longer to accumulate their hits. However, the higher traffic counts in recent years are offsetting that advantage more and more, enabling the best of the newer articles to contest the top positions. It's interesting to compare the total hits ranking (above) with that based on average hits per year since publication, which gives a more balanced view of long-term popularity - see table below.
In this list I have left out the 2021 posts because they don't even have a full year yet and their initial surge (if you'll pardon that expression) produces ridiculous hit rates. They are covered by a separate table (MPP1).
Table 2
Articles with the Highest Average Hits per year Since Publication
Article | Published | Hits per year | Position (& last year) | 'Total Hits' position |
2018 | 9330 | 1 (1) | 2 | |
2017 | 6990 | 2 (2) | 3 | |
2018 | 5825 | 3 (3) | 6 | |
| Homoeros Gallery Guide | 2018 | 5735 | 4 (4) | 10 |
| The Art of Amalaric – 1 A Slave To Passion | 2020 | 5264 | 5 (-) | 40 |
2020 | 4222 | 6 (-) | 28 | |
2012 | 3976 | 7 (6) | 1 | |
2018 | 3770 | 8 (5) | 8 | |
| Milking Factories-4 | 2018 | 3667 | 9 (7) | 15 |
2020 | 3006 | 10 (-) | 52 | |
2018 | 2911 | 11 (8) | 18 | |
2010 | 2692 | 12 (10) | 4 | |
2008 | 2690 | 13 (11) | 5 | |
2020 | 2512 | 14 (-) | 118 | |
2020 | 2479 | 15 (-) | 124 | |
2018 | 2432 | 16 (9) | 37 | |
2018 | 2336 | 17 (12) | 26 | |
2019 | 2216 | 18 (14) | 48 | |
2017 | 2143 | 19 (13) | 23 | |
2020 | 2092 | 20 (-) | 197 |
With the top 4 articles impressively holding on to last years positions, the most striking feature of this chart is the entry of 4 new articles from the 2020, 'Art of Amalaric' series at 5, 14, 15 and 20. Also two of the 'Art of Brosfate' posts at 6 and 10, also from 2020.
These six newcomers swept away more of 'the usual suspects' which have dominated these charts in the past:- Hunk Hunt – Mitch Colby 5, A-Z of Fetish Artists - Malex, A-Z of Fetish Artists - Jotto and A Christmas Criminal (ep 1-5) Now only there are only 3 articles left that are older than 2017, a sea change that is gradually being manifested in the total counts table (top).
The cut-off point for the 'hit rate' table rose from 1584 to 2092 hits per year. That is a total which was exceeded in 2021 by most of the articles represented in the 'Top 20 scorers during 2021', which indicates that these top scorers are not totally out of sight.
You can see how this method tends to benefit popular, newer articles in the short term by the new entries whose overall totals, reflected in the last column have yet to demonstrate long term consistency. The score of newer articles decays more quickly than the older ones if they don't keep up their initial post-publication surge and this year we also lost two newish articles which have already run out of steam The Art of Sparkieshock and Another Milking Factory No 2 (both from 2018). The bottom end of the table is full of other newish articles in decline, it remains to be seen if new boys Amalaric and Brosfate can make a lasting impression on these rankings.
If you scan the years in the second table, newer articles fill 9 of the top 10 spaces, but the amazing long term performance of Priapus sticks out like a sore thumb in 7th place as do Mike Carcel and Cavelo which are running neck and neck (as usual) at 12 and 13. These articles have sustained heavy hit rates for 10-14 years not just 4 and the newer articles will have to do likewise to keep their present positions.
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The articles I post to this blog are very much based on my own interests and fancies but the results of this survey do help me plan future offerings. My readers preferences doesn't always match my own (where are Les, JoeT and Link?). Nevertheless it's gratifying to see such interest in the great artists who often have a fairly low visibility on the web.
Remember, this comparison is only made for entertainment, since I don't really know how accurate Google's stats are, they don't seem to add up to the overall hits at the blog and I suspect they don't count the activity of people who just browse through the blog roll.
Thanks to all of you for your continuing interest and support.
This annual set of articles is made up of 3 charts
MPP1 - Most Popular New Post of the Year
MPP2 - Most Popular Post of the Year (Old and New articles )
MPP3 - Most Popular Post of All Time (i.e. cumulative performance)
that's this article!
Charts and reviews for earlier years can be accessed by clicking the 'MPP' label below