Touhou isn’t old: 15- to 19-year-olds make up the majority of the fandom even in 2023 

The results of the Touhou Project Popularity Poll 2023 are out, and among the various data collected, the results show that almost 40% of respondents to the poll were aged 15 to 19 years old, making this age group the most represented demographic in the Touhou fandom in 2023. The unexpected figures have caused surprised reactions in the online community, with users happy to see that the fandom remains young despite the franchise’s old history, but also questioning what it is that keeps young fans coming. 

東方人気投票の何が一番衝撃的ってこれだろ
15～19最で全体の40％やで？ pic.twitter.com/QETOPntK0B

— 鈍ザンキ (@namakura_zanki) September 30, 2023

The annual Touhou Project Popularity Poll took place from September 16 to September 30, 2023, collecting data on the fandom’s most popular characters, OSTs and similar. The survey section of the poll included questions regarding the age, sex, location etc of respondents, the results of which provide a neat statistical overview of the fandom.  

The results of the question related to age are receiving particular attention from Japanese users, as out of 15,273 respondents, 6,091 (39.88%) were aged 15 to 19 years old. The next most represented age group was 20 to 24 years old with 3,442 votes (22.54%), making the Touhou fandom unexpectedly young. For long-standing franchises, it’s common for fandoms to grow old together with the franchise, but to the surprise of the community, the exact opposite seems to be happening with Touhou, with late teens dominating the community, and people over 25 years old making up only about 20%. 

With a 27-year-old history, the Touhou series had, unsurprisingly, had the reputation of somewhat of an “old dude” franchise, so the results this time around made most people do a double take. Now, Touhou is a still ongoing franchise, with the latest title having released in August this year, so it is “new” in that sense. However, when looking at the character and OST rankings, older titles, such as Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (2002) still seem to dominate in popularity.  

Wondering what it is that keeps young people interacting with the franchise, users theorized on the possible ways they may be entering the fandom, and younger users themselves told of how they first came in contact with the franchise. One of the biggest factors seems to be YouTube, especially “Yukkuri” commentary videos. It seems that a lot of users would come to know of Touhou by coming across popular Touhou videos or watching let’s plays of other games which had Touhou Yukkuri characters doing commentary. The Touhou Popularity Poll’s survey also included the question “How did you get into Touhou?” to which the majority (37.46%) of respondents answered, “Through viral videos on YouTube.” 

The second most represented answer, “I got to know about it offline,” could tell of another unexpected, but possible entrance into Touhou – getting to know about it from your parents. The franchise is indeed old enough for people who once loved Touhou to grow up and have their children inherit their passion for the series. 

自分もハマった頃はその15〜19歳だったので、その年代を強烈に魅了する何かがあるんですかね〜(しらんけど

— ももべぇ (@momobe_A) September 30, 2023

On the other hand, some proposed the idea that there could be something about Touhou that is intrinsically attractive for that specific age group. And indeed, looking up past poll results shows that late teens have been in the majority for the most part, though 2023 has seen a particular culmination of the tendency.

Although the poll doesn’t reveal what age group consumes what parts of the franchise’s various media, and the ways people enter the fandom are surely quite different in Japan and overseas, it could be that there’s something about the settings, stories, characters and music that answers to the adolescent’s need for angst, as well as some unabashed edginess. After all, Flandre Scarlet was ranked the 3^rd most popular character out of 52,447 votes.