The reason for this revision is that Brian Reid's raw arbitron figures contain a major (fortunately reversible) statistical error that severely underestimates the readership of most groups. I have excluded clearly local/regional hierarchies from this revised list because they suffer from an even more egregarious sampling error that radically overestimates their worldwide readership. They can be found in a companion posting to this one.
Explanations of the figures are in a companion posting by Brian Reid.
+-- Estimated total number of people who read the group, worldwide. | +-- Actual number of readers in sampled population | | +-- Propagation: how many sites receive this group at all | | | +-- Recent traffic (messages per month) | | | | +-- Recent traffic (megabytes per month) | | | | | +-- Crossposting percentage | | | | | | +-- Cost ratio: $US/month/rdr | | | | | | | +-- Share: % of newsrders | | | | | | | | who read this group. V V V V V V V V 1 626926 2163 49% 15864 761.2 13% 0.38 3.46% alt.binaries.pictures.erotica 2 193324 667 54% 4770 292.6 1% 0.48 1.07% alt.binaries.multimedia 3 369258 1274 43% 8709 253.4 36% 0.22 2.04% alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.female 4 106662 368 38% 3325 245.2 3% 0.72 0.59% alt.binaries.sounds.tv 5 130139 449 42% 6724 207.9 5% 0.50 0.72% alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.male 6 256509 885 37% 4159 185.6 22% 0.23 1.42% alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.orientals 7 126371 436 47% 2049 181.6 4% 0.45 0.70% alt.binaries.sounds.music 8 333607 1151 54% 4791 162.3 8% 0.15 1.84% alt.binaries.pictures.misc 9 504903 1742 44% 6988 156.3 4% 0.10 2.79% alt.binaries.pictures.supermodels 10 309261 1067 32% 4362 133.3 7% 0.14 1.71% alt.binaries.pictures.celebrities 11 146949 507 20% 3743 114 26% 0.24 0.81% alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.amateur.female 12 51882 179 46% 26483 107.5 4% 0.65 0.29% rec.games.trading-cards.marketplace 13 118545 409 38% 2195 93.9 9% 0.25 0.65% alt.binaries.sounds.movies 14 134486 464 22% 1780 92.3 23% 0.22 0.74% alt.binaries.multimedia.erotica 15 103183 356 39% 2353 88 3% 0.27 0.57% alt.binaries.sounds.mods 16 293319 1012 41% 4732 83.5 50% 0.09 1.62% alt.sex.pictures 17 84344 291 62% 12391 64.8 3% 0.24 0.47% alt.test 18 293029 1011 45% 2082 64.2 9% 0.07 1.62% alt.binaries.pictures.tasteless 19 28984 100 40% 712 63.5 0% 0.69 0.16% bionet.molbio.genbank.updates 20 340853 1176 39% 2643 62.8 26% 0.06 1.88% alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.blondes 21 238249 822 35% 4063 58.9 60% 0.08 1.31% alt.sex.pictures.female 22 53041 183 14% 1588 58.5 1% 0.35 0.29% alt.binaries.warez.ibm-pc 23 193324 667 52% 1387 58.1 12% 0.09 1.07% alt.binaries.sounds.misc 24 284044 980 52% 2498 51.8 5% 0.06 1.57% alt.binaries.pictures.utilities 25 123182 425 20% 1660 49.7 7% 0.13 0.68% alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.bondage 26 36230 125 13% 2100 49.3 23% 0.43 0.20% alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.teen 27 97966 338 21% 1047 42.2 4% 0.14 0.54% alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.bestiality 28 148399 512 32% 655 41.4 4% 0.09 0.82% alt.binaries.sounds.erotica 29 121154 418 20% 1291 40.1 7% 0.10 0.67% alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.fetish 30 591566 2041 51% 5345 38.5 8% 0.02 3.26% alt.sex.stories 31 450703 1555 81% 23553 33.6 28% 0.02 2.49% misc.jobs.offered 32 112169 387 31% 1044 32.7 3% 0.09 0.62% alt.binaries.pictures.anime 33 108980 376 21% 1070 31.4 5% 0.09 0.60% alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.anime 34 110719 382 15% 1200 28.9 19% 0.08 0.61% alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.breasts 35 79416 274 34% 671 28.6 6% 0.11 0.44% alt.binaries.misc 36 118835 410 37% 1191 28.3 6% 0.07 0.66% alt.binaries.doom 37 79706 275 22% 1847 27.5 29% 0.11 0.44% alt.binaries.pictures.girlfriends 38 155065 535 28% 971 27.1 10% 0.05 0.86% alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.cartoons 39 55939 193 24% 702 27.1 4% 0.15 0.31% alt.binaries.sounds.cartoons 40 53331 184 54% 12123 26.8 6% 0.16 0.29% alt.religion.scientology