What are Game of Thrones fans like? Check out the results of this demographic survey

Not long ago, a survey went up on the Time Capsule of Ice and Fire blog. It collected information about respondents’ age, gender, whether they read the books first or watched the show first, whether they’re bothered by the show overtaking the books, and more. Now, the results of the survey have been posted. Let’s take a look at some of them.

So according to this, the ordinary Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones fan is a male aged 18-29. Keep in mind that the results of this survey don’t represent the entire fandom, just those who took the survey, possibly via a link on Reddit. That may well skew what kind of people are represented here. For example, it’s clear that the vast majority of people who answered the survey both watch Game of Thrones and read George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, so there aren’t a lot of show-only people represented.

Still, it’s interesting to consider the data. For example, while the vast majority of participants have read or are reading the books, most of them only started to do so after seeing the show first. A Song of Ice and Fire was always successful, but it took Game of Thrones to make it a monster hit.

Also noteworthy is that while most of the respondents prefer the books to the show…

…they still think Game of Thrones did a good job adapting Martin’s work.

Speaking as people who are way too invested in this stuff, we can be critical of the show from time to time, but at the end of the day, we get a lot more joy out of it than frustration. This graph backs us up.

Here’s another fascinating one: does it bother people that the show has overtaken the books.

Split right down the middle! Personally, I’ve never cared that the show overtook the books—it’s not that makes A Clash of Kings or A Storm of Swords any less worth reading—but that’s far from the only view on the subject.

What do you think of the results? For more of them, head to A Time Capsule of Ice and Fire.