Every trope we publish for Contemporary — Sports Romance, ranked by demand-signal mentions counted over the 28 weeks to 2026-09-07. 12,378 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 | Found Family | 759 | 6.13% | Share up | 345 |
| 2 | Slow Burn | 530 | 4.28% | Share up | 296 |
| 3 | Sports Romance | 524 | 4.23% | Share change under 15% | 91 |
| 4 | Second Chance | 519 | 4.19% | Share down | 309 |
| 5 | Forced Proximity | 475 | 3.84% | Share down | 758 |
| 6 | Fake Dating / Fake Relationship | 331 | 2.67% | Share down | 92 |
| 7 | Friends to Lovers | 266 | 2.15% | Share change under 15% | 84 |
| 8 | Banter | 240 | 1.94% | Share down | 7,977 |
| 9 | Enemies to Lovers | 232 | 1.87% | Share change under 15% | 383 |
| 10 | Forbidden Romance | 188 | 1.52% | Share down | 338 |
| 11 | Reverse Harem / Why Choose | 140 | 1.13% | Share change under 15% | 88 |
| 12 | Ensemble Cast | 126 | 1.02% | Not called | — |
| 13 | Opposites Attract | 112 | 0.90% | Share up | 122 |
| 14 | Brother's Best Friend | 101 | 0.82% | Share down | 65 |
| 15 | Protective Hero | 101 | 0.82% | Share up | 187 |
| 16 | Age Gap | 97 | 0.78% | Share down | — |
| 17 | Childhood Friends to Lovers | 97 | 0.78% | Share down | 34 |
| 18 | Secret Relationship | 93 | 0.75% | Share up | 21 |
| 19 | Omegaverse | 83 | 0.67% | Share down | 1,007 |
| 20 | Coming Of Age | 76 | 0.61% | Share up | 4 |
| 21 | Character Growth | 76 | 0.61% | Share up | 9 |
| 22 | He Falls First | 71 | 0.57% | Share down | 52 |
| 23 | Redemption Arc | 70 | 0.57% | Share down | 47 |
| 24 | Single Parent | 69 | 0.56% | Share down | 154 |
| 25 | Grumpy MMC | 68 | 0.55% | Share down | 181 |
| 26 | Boss / Employee | 64 | 0.52% | Share change under 15% | 160 |
| 27 | Marriage of Convenience | 60 | 0.48% | Not called | 179 |
| 28 | Emotional Depth | 58 | 0.47% | Share up | 29 |
| 29 | Instalove | 57 | 0.46% | Share down | 1,945 |
| 30 | Grumpy Sunshine | 55 | 0.44% | Share down | 227 |
| 31 | Fated Mates | 52 | 0.42% | Share down | 215 |
| 32 | Spicy Romance | 52 | 0.42% | Not called | — |
| 33 | Trauma Recovery | 45 | 0.36% | Not called | 17 |
| 34 | Romance | 45 | 0.36% | Not called | 1 |
| 35 | Secret/Hidden Identity | 43 | 0.35% | Not called | 127 |
| 36 | Secret Baby | 42 | 0.34% | Not called | 48 |
| 37 | Series Continuation | 41 | 0.33% | Not called | 3 |
| 38 | Strong FMC | 40 | 0.32% | Not called | 71 |
| 39 | Coming Out / Identity Discovery | 38 | 0.31% | Share change under 15% | 1 |
| 40 | Miscommunication | 37 | 0.30% | Not called | 12,058 |
| 41 | Possessive Hero | 37 | 0.30% | Not called | 98 |
| 42 | Series Arc | 37 | 0.30% | Not called | — |
| 43 | Hurt/Comfort | 37 | 0.30% | Not called | 218 |
| 44 | Small Town | 36 | 0.29% | Not called | 199 |
| 45 | Dark Romance (as trope) | 36 | 0.29% | Not called | 170 |
| 46 | Self Discovery | 36 | 0.29% | Not called | 12 |
| 47 | Character Driven | 36 | 0.29% | Not called | — |
| 48 | Meet Cute | 35 | 0.28% | Share down | 18 |
| 49 | Pining | 34 | 0.27% | Not called | 125 |
| 50 | Dual POV | 31 | 0.25% | Not called | 19 |
| 51 | Contemporary Romance | 29 | 0.23% | Not called | — |
| 52 | Humor | 28 | 0.23% | Not called | 6 |
| 53 | M/M Romance | 28 | 0.23% | Not called | 4 |
| 54 | Mystery / Suspense Element | 28 | 0.23% | Not called | 56 |
| 55 | Grand Gesture | 27 | 0.22% | Not called | 16 |
| 56 | Series Romance | 26 | 0.21% | Not called | 3 |
| 57 | Sweet Romance | 26 | 0.21% | Not called | 8 |
| 58 | Yearning | 25 | 0.20% | Not called | 12,181 |
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.