Every trope we publish for First Contact Science Fiction, ranked by demand-signal mentions counted over the 28 weeks to 2026-09-07. 5,488 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. 3,851 trope-and-lane readouts, last counted 2026-09-16.
| # | Trope | Mentions | Share of lane | Direction | Tagged titles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | First Contact | 238 | 4.34% | Share down | — |
| 2 | Found Family | 215 | 3.92% | Share change under 15% | 345 |
| 3 | Alien Romance | 140 | 2.55% | Share down | 1 |
| 4 | Ensemble Cast | 105 | 1.91% | Not called | — |
| 5 | Space Opera | 103 | 1.88% | Not called | — |
| 6 | Hard Sci Fi | 100 | 1.82% | Not called | — |
| 7 | Slow Burn | 78 | 1.42% | Share down | 296 |
| 8 | Fated Mates | 78 | 1.42% | Share down | 215 |
| 9 | Forced Proximity | 72 | 1.31% | Share down | 758 |
| 10 | Alien Invasion | 68 | 1.24% | Not called | — |
| 11 | Series Continuation | 67 | 1.22% | Not called | 3 |
| 12 | Fish Out of Water | 59 | 1.08% | Share down | 66 |
| 13 | Mystery / Suspense Element | 58 | 1.06% | Share down | 56 |
| 14 | Action Adventure | 42 | 0.77% | Share down | 5 |
| 15 | Survival | 38 | 0.69% | Not called | 497 |
| 16 | Character Driven | 36 | 0.66% | Not called | — |
| 17 | Character Growth | 36 | 0.66% | Not called | 9 |
| 18 | Plot Twists | 34 | 0.62% | Not called | 38 |
| 19 | Military Sci Fi | 32 | 0.58% | Not called | — |
| 20 | Philosophical Sci Fi | 31 | 0.56% | Not called | — |
| 21 | High Stakes | 31 | 0.56% | Not called | 26 |
| 22 | Character Driven Narrative | 30 | 0.55% | Not called | — |
| 23 | World Building | 28 | 0.51% | Not called | — |
| 24 | Alien Contact | 27 | 0.49% | Not called | — |
| 25 | Fast Paced | 25 | 0.46% | Not called | 6 |
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.