Free tool · Counted, not estimated · as of 2026-09-07

Dark Romance — what readers are actually asking for

Every trope we publish for Dark Romance, ranked by reader-demand mentions counted over the 28 weeks to 2026-08-24. 18,605 trope mentions counted in the lane in that window. Pick one for the full readout.

Genre / subgenre Trope

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	Dark Romance (as trope)	1,680	9.03%	Rising	170
2	Forced Proximity	654	3.52%	Cooling	758
3	Mafia Romance	568	3.05%	Cooling	59
4	Found Family	433	2.33%	Rising	345
5	Enemies to Lovers	412	2.21%	Holding steady	383
6	Age Gap	386	2.07%	Cooling	—
7	Morally Grey MMC	386	2.07%	Holding steady	266
8	Obsessive MMC	351	1.89%	Cooling	151
9	Slow Burn	329	1.77%	Holding steady	296
10	Forbidden Romance	277	1.49%	Cooling	338
11	Possessive Hero	254	1.37%	Rising	98
12	Obsessive Love	243	1.31%	Rising	22
13	Protective Hero	226	1.21%	Holding steady	187
14	Marriage of Convenience	209	1.12%	Cooling	179
15	Reverse Harem / Why Choose	202	1.09%	Rising	88
16	Stalker Romance	193	1.04%	Holding steady	21
17	Possessive MMC	179	0.96%	Cooling	213
18	Protective MMC	167	0.90%	Cooling	298
19	Second Chance	153	0.82%	Cooling	309
20	Instalove	134	0.72%	Cooling	1,186
21	Banter	133	0.71%	Rising	6,178
22	Plot Twists	112	0.60%	Rising	38
23	Mystery / Suspense Element	102	0.55%	Rising	56
24	Trauma Recovery	101	0.54%	Holding steady	17
25	Hurt/Comfort	97	0.52%	Cooling	218
26	Revenge	89	0.48%	Rising	1,378
27	Fated Mates	87	0.47%	Cooling	215
28	Alpha MMC	85	0.46%	Cooling	40
29	Spicy Romance	84	0.45%	Rising	—
30	Captive / Captor	81	0.44%	Cooling	45
31	Paranormal Romance	81	0.44%	Cooling	109
32	Bodyguard Romance	78	0.42%	Cooling	15
33	Power Imbalance	77	0.41%	Rising	40
34	Redemption Arc	77	0.41%	Holding steady	47
35	He Falls First	75	0.40%	Cooling	52
36	Bully Romance	72	0.39%	Cooling	21
37	High Stakes	68	0.37%	Rising	26
38	Character Growth	68	0.37%	Holding steady	9
39	Opposites Attract	64	0.34%	Holding steady	122
40	Morally Grey Characters	62	0.33%	Rising	4
41	Non-Consent	62	0.33%	Rising	139
42	Strong FMC	60	0.32%	Rising	71
43	Grumpy Sunshine	59	0.32%	Cooling	227
44	MC / Motorcycle Club Romance	55	0.30%	Holding steady	2
45	Dominant MMC	53	0.28%	Rising	—
46	Power Exchange	48	0.26%	Not called	1
47	Captivity	45	0.24%	Cooling	414
48	Omegaverse	45	0.24%	Cooling	610
49	Angst	45	0.24%	Cooling	3,262
50	Page Turner	44	0.24%	Rising	2
51	Ensemble Cast	42	0.23%	Rising	—
52	Series Continuation	41	0.22%	Rising	3
53	Daddy Dom	40	0.21%	Not called	2
54	Series Arc	40	0.21%	Holding steady	—
55	Power Dynamics	39	0.21%	Rising	6
56	Secret Baby	39	0.21%	Cooling	48
57	Dub-Con	37	0.20%	Holding steady	625
58	Cat and Mouse	36	0.19%	Not called	8
59	Dual POV	35	0.19%	Holding steady	19
60	Grumpy MMC	35	0.19%	Holding steady	181

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.

Keep going — free

Lane score for Dark Romance — is the genre worth writing at all?
Every free Tropesmith tool — lane scores, trope opportunity check, reader demand, category & rank checker, Hook Lab.
The 2026 Romance Demand Report — the full year’s read on where romance demand is heading, from the same engine.
Lane Score — is the subgenre worth writing at all?
Trope Demand Checker — pick a genre and a trope, see the counted reader demand.

Build my Dark Romance Map → All genres