Every trope we publish for Contemporary — Sports Romance, ranked by reader-demand mentions counted over the 28 weeks to 2026-08-24. 11,874 trope mentions counted in the lane in that window. Pick one for the full readout.
Changing the genre and pressing Check demand reloads the trope list for that lane. 3,589 trope-and-lane readouts are published today.
| # | Trope | Mentions | Share of lane | Direction | Tagged titles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Found Family | 718 | 6.05% | Rising | 345 |
| 2 | Second Chance | 514 | 4.33% | Holding steady | 309 |
| 3 | Slow Burn | 513 | 4.32% | Holding steady | 296 |
| 4 | Sports Romance | 499 | 4.20% | Holding steady | 91 |
| 5 | Forced Proximity | 465 | 3.92% | Holding steady | 758 |
| 6 | Fake Dating / Fake Relationship | 330 | 2.78% | Cooling | 92 |
| 7 | Friends to Lovers | 256 | 2.16% | Rising | 84 |
| 8 | Banter | 229 | 1.93% | Cooling | 6,178 |
| 9 | Enemies to Lovers | 220 | 1.85% | Holding steady | 383 |
| 10 | Forbidden Romance | 178 | 1.50% | Cooling | 338 |
| 11 | Reverse Harem / Why Choose | 134 | 1.13% | Holding steady | 88 |
| 12 | Ensemble Cast | 117 | 0.99% | Rising | — |
| 13 | Opposites Attract | 104 | 0.88% | Rising | 122 |
| 14 | Brother's Best Friend | 99 | 0.83% | Cooling | 65 |
| 15 | Protective Hero | 96 | 0.81% | Rising | 187 |
| 16 | Childhood Friends to Lovers | 93 | 0.78% | Holding steady | 34 |
| 17 | Age Gap | 92 | 0.77% | Cooling | — |
| 18 | Omegaverse | 81 | 0.68% | Cooling | 610 |
| 19 | Redemption Arc | 71 | 0.60% | Holding steady | 47 |
| 20 | Character Growth | 71 | 0.60% | Rising | 9 |
| 21 | Secret Relationship | 70 | 0.59% | Rising | 21 |
| 22 | He Falls First | 70 | 0.59% | Cooling | 52 |
| 23 | Grumpy MMC | 67 | 0.56% | Cooling | 181 |
| 24 | Single Parent | 66 | 0.56% | Holding steady | 154 |
| 25 | Boss / Employee | 64 | 0.54% | Cooling | 160 |
| 26 | Coming Of Age | 64 | 0.54% | Rising | 4 |
| 27 | Emotional Depth | 63 | 0.53% | Holding steady | 29 |
| 28 | Marriage of Convenience | 60 | 0.51% | Not called | 179 |
| 29 | Instalove | 56 | 0.47% | Cooling | 1,186 |
| 30 | Grumpy Sunshine | 53 | 0.45% | Cooling | 227 |
| 31 | Fated Mates | 49 | 0.41% | Cooling | 215 |
| 32 | Spicy Romance | 46 | 0.39% | Holding steady | — |
| 33 | Trauma Recovery | 45 | 0.38% | Not called | 17 |
| 34 | Secret/Hidden Identity | 44 | 0.37% | Not called | 127 |
| 35 | Character Driven | 38 | 0.32% | Not called | — |
| 36 | Small Town | 38 | 0.32% | Not called | 199 |
| 37 | Possessive Hero | 37 | 0.31% | Not called | 98 |
| 38 | Miscommunication | 37 | 0.31% | Not called | 7,215 |
| 39 | Strong FMC | 36 | 0.30% | Not called | 71 |
| 40 | M/M Romance | 36 | 0.30% | Not called | 4 |
| 41 | Romance | 35 | 0.29% | Not called | 1 |
| 42 | Dark Romance (as trope) | 35 | 0.29% | Not called | 170 |
| 43 | Hurt/Comfort | 35 | 0.29% | Not called | 218 |
| 44 | Pining | 34 | 0.29% | Not called | 85 |
| 45 | Self Discovery | 34 | 0.29% | Not called | 12 |
| 46 | Series Continuation | 34 | 0.29% | Not called | 3 |
| 47 | Series Arc | 33 | 0.28% | Not called | — |
| 48 | Meet Cute | 33 | 0.28% | Cooling | 18 |
| 49 | Secret Baby | 32 | 0.27% | Not called | 48 |
| 50 | Dual POV | 30 | 0.25% | Not called | 19 |
| 51 | Contemporary Romance | 28 | 0.24% | Not called | — |
| 52 | Grand Gesture | 28 | 0.24% | Not called | 16 |
| 53 | Mystery / Suspense Element | 26 | 0.22% | Not called | 56 |
| 54 | Sweet Romance | 26 | 0.22% | Not called | 8 |
Direction is the change in each trope’s share of the lane between the last 12 weeks and the 12 before — never a raw weekly move. “Not called” means the two bands hold fewer than 30 mentions between them and we will not pretend otherwise. Tagged titles are counted across our whole registry, not just this lane.