Evaluating pro player popularity in disc golf.
November 20, 2024 by Josiah Zoodsma and Jesse Weisz in Analysis, News with 0 comments
What is it about some competitors that leads us to cheer for them while other players we actively root against? For the past three years, the FAR/Ultiworld Fandom Survey has sought to answer that question. In this article, we present data from the nearly 10,000 surveys filled out by disc golf fans. To learn more about the survey and the demographics of the survey respondents, please read this accompanying article. This article is focused on results from the first section of our survey – “Player Perceptions: What does the disc golf community think of professional players?”
How did we select which players to include in the 2024 Fandom Survey?
In 2023, the Fandom Survey included 57 players (37 MPO and 20 FPO). This year, the survey included 100 players (60 MPO and 40 FPO).
- The Top-40 MPO and Top-25 FPO players from the StatMando Official Rankings prior to survey launch were automatically included in the survey.
- An additional 20 MPO and 15 FPO players were selected to be included based on a variety of factors, including media presence (e.g., Brodie Smith, Andrew Fish, and Chantel Budinsky), young rising stars (e.g., Luke Taylor and Emily Weatherman), or long-time disc golf favorites who still compete on tour (e.g., Garrett Gurthie, Gregg Barsby, and Juliana Korver).
For these 100 players, we asked survey respondents: “On a scale from 0 to 10, are you rooting against or for the players below?” We also gave the following instructions to guide responses: “A player that you dislike would get a number less than 5, with your least favorite player/s getting a 0. A player you like would get a number above 5. Your favorite player/s would get a 9 or a 10.” We use the term ‘Fandom Score’ to describe the value that survey respondents gave to a player for this question.
Below are the average Fandom Scores for the professionals we included in the 2024 survey:
Average Fandom Score for Professionals Featured in the 2024 Survey
Note: Most of the charts in this series of articles have additional data you can view if you mouse over (or touch on mobile) any of the lines or bars. For example, this chart shows where players ranked in the previous two years and the number of survey respondents who rated players this year.
- Simon Lizotte‘s reign continues! For the second straight year, Simon Lizotte finishes atop the charts in average Fandom Score. He is the only player to receive a “10” from over 50% of the respondents.
- Kristin Tattar finishes as the top FPO player in average Fandom Score for the third straight year, and second overall.
- The six players with the highest average Fandom Score in 2024 are the same six players that had the highest average scores in both 2022 and 2023, albeit in a slightly different order.
- Calvin Heimburg, Ohn Scoggins, Matthew Orum, and Nate Sexton continue to be fan favorites. The bottom three players in Fandom Score from 2023 also remained the same.
- In her first year appearing in the Fandom Survey, Silva Saarinen comes out of the gate strong with the seventh highest average Fandom Score, and third highest among FPO. Anniken Steen and Emily Weatherman also finished in the Top-15 in average Fandom Score in their first year included in the survey.
This year, we asked survey respondents to indicate whether they were familiar with individual players. If they were not familiar with a player, respondents were not asked to rate their rooting interest. In this way, we aimed to avoid the scores being changed by ratings from survey respondents who did not know a player. If you are interested in how familiar players were, the results are summarized here.
Average Fandom Score only reveals part of the story on who fans root for and against. Below are the distributions of responses from survey respondents for two players with near identical average Fandom Scores.
Fandom Score Distributions Väinö Mäkelä and Gannon Buhr
Despite having nearly identical average Fandom Scores, Väinö Mäkelä and Gannon Buhr had very different distributions of responses. Buhr had more fans who root for him strongly (i.e., a higher percentage of responses of 8, 9, or 10) than Mäkelä but also more respondents who strongly root against him (i.e., a higher percentage of responses of 0, 1, or 2). In this way, average Fandom Score does not directly correlate to popularity, and these distinctions are hidden if you only look at the average scores.
To better understand any player’s average Fandom Score, you can look at their distribution. Toggle between different players or select multiple players to compare in the graph below. Players are arranged in alphabetical order.
What other storylines are hidden in the distributions? We looked across all players in our survey for those that had the most divided fanbase. These players scored above average for both very high (8-10) and very low (0-2) Fandom Scores. The Top-5 players with the greatest division in fandom were:
- Ricky Wysocki
- Gannon Buhr
- Paige Pierce
- Kat Mertsch
- Paul McBeth
How has the fandom of players changed in the past year? The next chart shows the change in average Fandom Score from 2023 to 2024. Note: this chart only shows players who were included in both 2023 and 2024.
- Ricky Wysocki had the greatest increase in average Fandom Score from 2023 (5.51) to 2024 (7.29).
- On the FPO side, Eveliina Salonen had the greatest increase in average Fandom Score. This is true even among the large majority of the survey responses that were entered prior to her 2024 PDGA World Championship victory.
- Brodie Smith, Hailey King, and Corey Ellis had the greatest reduction in Fandom Score from 2023 to 2024.
Changes in Fandom Score between 2023 and 2024 are likely a combination of (1) real changes in the fandom of disc golf fans and (2) differences in the survey population between the two years. Notably, in 2024, more survey respondents found the survey through watching live or post-produced disc golf and fewer found it through social media sites. These factors may partially explain some of the increase in Fandom Score of successful touring players like Ricky Wysocki and Paul McBeth, and the decrease in players like Brodie Smith who are prolific in the disc golf social media scene.
In addition to Fandom Score, the 2024 Fandom Survey also asked respondents who their favorite players were. The Top-20 results for most selected favorite MPO players are shown here:
- Just as in 2023, Simon Lizotte, Calvin Heimburg, and Paul McBeth hold the top three spots.
- Among the Top-5 in overall favorite players, McBeth, Wysocki, and Buhr (3 through 5 on this list) are also the three MPO players with the most divided fanbase based on Fandom Scores.
How do these percentages compare to last year?
Change in MPO favorite players
- Despite maintaining the top spot as the favorite MPO player, Simon Lizotte had the greatest drop in the percentage of respondents who said he is their favorite player.
- What drove the increase in fandom among the players at the top of this chart? Perhaps, recent DGPT success. The four MPO players with the greatest increase year-over-year in being respondents’ favorite player are all 2024 multi-time DGPT champions.
- Just as in 2023, Kristin Tattar was overwhelmingly voted as the fan favorite FPO player, with over 40% of respondents naming her as their favorite. Similar to last year, Ohn Scoggins was the only other player in double digits for favorite FPO player.
- Eveliina Salonen moved all the way up to the third most favorite FPO player. She was 10th in 2023.
How do these percentages compare to last year?
Change in FPO favorite players
- Silva Saarinen saw the greatest increase with now over 4% of respondents indicating she was their favorite player.
- Similar to Simon Lizotte, Kristin Tattar saw the greatest decrease in the last year, even though she maintained her spot as the fan favorite FPO disc golfer.
- Every FPO player that saw an increase of greater than 0.5% since 2023 won at least one 2024 DGPT event.
In the next article in the series, we will investigate what drives the fandom and support of disc golf fans. Is it a player’s personality? Their raw athletic ability? Their playstyle? The events they’ve won? Additionally, do you value the same things that other disc golf fans value? We are excited to share all of this and more with you in the next article in the series.
- If you are interested in learning more about the team and research goals at First Available Research, click here!
- If you want to read articles from last year’s Fandom Survey, click here!
- If you want to be notified of the publication of future articles in this series and/or want to take future disc golf surveys from our group, click here!
- If you have any questions, comments or mailbag topics for future articles, submit them here!
Special thanks to Lauren Campbell, who was instrumental in developing our research plan and assisting with survey design. Also, thanks go out to the Fandom Survey’s editor, Karl Lamothe.
