@Shimmering Spectacle
Hmm, seems that series hasn’t updated with PetalScout in nearly a year, at least not uploaded to the site. Since my last comment, out of 15-ish pics only 1 meets the criteria of 50+ Upvotes, cleanish, and not AI (plus not a love triangle).

@Chopsticks
and petalscout, i know that a chuck of it is from the “ask pippamena” series as well.

@Background Pony #E9E7
Hmm, I would expect the same thing for most of the other ships as well; it would take a long time to sort unless tags exist like “part of a set” were properly labeled (nevermind, G5 shipping art has been pretty thin). But the fact a certain ship/comic was translated into multiple languages I think speaks for some added popularity that [may be] justified.

Likewise, AI art of a certain limited view can inflate numbers quite a bit, like with PetalStorm, which grew another +73 images in the past 9 months, though a vast majority are AI or quick part-of-set comic sketches by 1 artist. Discounting those and duplicate variants, it’s actually +35. I would say the high Upvotes on most could overwrite that by demonstrating a certain amount of popularity, but that’s still stretching it a bit.

By comparison, Pitch only grew +46 pics all included (with almost no AI uploads or variants). That makes PetalStorm’s growth (a lesbian incest ship) pretty impressive.
The premiere flagship of the series, MoonScout, grew by +89 without AI, which honestly makes PetalStorm’s growth even more impressive.
.

If only pics with 50+ score were counted minus AI, repeat uploads, and without most raunchy tags:

MoonScout: +45
StormBlazer: +40
StarBlazer: +23
PetalStorm: +21
Pitch: +16

Rest were <9, most <3. (Which means Pipp may be shipped harder with her own sister in the past year than every other character combined! Lol I love it.)

@Chopsticks
To be fair, ZippHitch has a lot of “padding” (multiple versions of the same image but translated to different languages, single page comics getting each panel individually uploaded, edited screenshots, memes, etc.). I would like to know the actual number of fanart each ship gets tho. It seems MoonScout still wins in that regard.

Since this image, I’ve arranged the ships in order of growth by related ship pics.

I have no idea if/why any of this data is relevant, or why I took the time to look through it, but it seems Hitch+Zipp (StormBlazer) has overtaken IzzyScout by nearly 100 images in growth. Surely, canonical shipping fuel is a strong influencer; Detective Zipp working with Sherriff Hitch, in dedicated episodes, comics, and split scenes in episodes as the lighter fluid.
If this continues, by next year Hitch and Zipp will become the most popular G5 ship.

I suspect that those in the +30 category are mostly grown as part of some kind of repetitive harem or ship-choosing image topics, possibly explicit comics. Hard to tell, a lot of the images seem to be hidden by my safety filters. At least a dozen no doubt involve Sprout getting the royal sisters in a 3-some or “all the mares”.

.

HitchZipp: 357 (+310)

IzzyScout: 442 (+235)

SunnyHitch: 289 (+230?)

.

HitchPipp: 219 (+160)

PippZipp: 109 (+91)

IzzyHitch: 107 (+78)

HitchSprout: 187 (+62)

.

ZippSprout: 51 (+39)

SunnyZipp: 28 (+38)

SunnySprout: 43 (+38)

IzzySprout: 47 (+34)

.

IzzyZipp: 31 (+20)

IzzyPipp: 34 (+23)

PippSprout: 18 (+16)

@Pone 2.0
what do you mean personality disorders

This^

@Softy
Dude. You’re totally wrong. Sprout would apologize if he would actually get a chanche! But they just forgot about him.
Also, not 100% his fault! His best friend Hitch was looking down on him, and even his mom didn’t care and just commanded him. Also, in this movie all ponies were enemies. They were taught in school that other ponies are evil. Everyone believed that.
Judge everyone not just Sprout who just tried to defend his home.
And at that dumb ending, Hitch did another mistake. He went to the girls acting like a badass super hero and like they big friends, instead of going to his childhood best friend and talk with him. Except Sunny, he know Izzy, Pipp and Zipp only for a few days, but Sprout is his best friend since they were kids.
Even his mom didn’t care about him. That’s one of the things that creators need to do in the series.
Sprout needs to get an actual chance, fix his mistake, also Hitch needs to apologize, and meet with Zipp, Pipp, Izzy.
That’s what I think.

Gay ships were always popular, though? The only problem in this fandom in G4 was a lack of male characters in general.

That said, I don’t support any Sprout pairing, at least until the series properly redeems him. As of the end of the movie, Sprout is still a dumb, obnoxious, walking collection of personality disorders.

@FlyRz10
Yep

@Raritybro
It’s #3

@TOMNICE
I don’t say they weren’t

@Pone 2.0
Fandoms were always full of gay ships. Are you new to the internet?

I hope so too alot of fandoms have become openly friendly to LGBT parings so I’m holding out hope (_{then again i held out hope for gallbar and we saw how that went down})

@Striker31
https://derpibooru.org/images/2787011

It’s not#2, but it’s #3! #2 is Sprout X Hitch.
But yes sorry! I forgot about that one…

@Striker31
Sorry! Yes I forgot about that one…

@TwiNet
Yeah, but they both have far more straight ships. And like I said, their gay ships are not nearly as popular.

@NicoThePinkUnicorn
Big Mac and Braeburn has been a staple of fandom shipping bro

You forgot Sunny hitch which is 67.

Forgot Sunny x Hitch, that’s probably like #2

Izzyscout always on top ;)

@NicoThePinkUnicorn
It is a cute and funny ship. Actually this is the only B x B ship that I actually like. Even tho I ship Sprout with Zipp, I also ship them.
True, I never liked yaoi, I was kinda against those ships, Derpibooru even blocked me because I sad something under one Gallbar pic.
But this one is different. I like this ship 😄

@TOMNICE
They were never as popular as the straight or lesbian pairings tho. Hell, most of them are rarepairs.