‘Hot Rivals’ and the boom in gay love stories

When the holiday season rolled around last year, Margaret Hecox knew exactly what her grandmother didn’t like.

The 23-year-old captioned the card about “hot feud,” an upcoming Canadian TV series that follows the undercover love story between two male hockey players. Hecox watched a few episodes with his grandmother and encouraged friends and other family members to sing.

“I knew he would love this program,” Hecox said. “Obviously, he did it.”

The grandmother-granddaughter duo is part of many female fans of books, shows and movies that focus on love stories between two men.

This type of romantic content – long known in some Asian cultures as “yaoi” or “boy love” – ​​has been in production for decades. But consumers and experts told CNBC that the “Hot Rivals” talk pushed this corner of LGBTQ+ media into the mainstream, especially among straight American women.

On TikTok, more than 900,000 videos have been posted using the hashtag “fujoshi,” which is the Japanese term for female fans. Google searches for terms related to the yaoi fandom rose to unprecedented levels late last year in the US, underscoring the growing domestic awareness of the subgenre.

“This is just, targeted, women coming out of the closet and the brand they’re invested in,” says Champaigne Graves, who interviews and hosts a podcast about female consumers. “It’s nothing new. It’s just something that women feel comfortable talking about and sharing with each other.”

All the things he said

HBOUS broadcaster “Heated Rivalry,” said that almost two-thirds of the series’ viewers are women. During the show’s press tour, the creative team and lead actors repeatedly asked questions about why they believe it appeals to women in particular.

“‘Hot Rivalry’ caused a woman to be like, ‘OK, we want more of this,'” said Emily Sarre, a social media content creator who has written extensively about her endorsement of the show.

The demand for this type of content has increased beyond the six-episode “Heated Rivalry” series.

“Call Me by Your Name,” an upcoming drama Sonyhad the ninth most fans of any female-identifying narrative film on the film review forum Letterboxd. That’s 46 slots higher than where it occupies the equivalent list for men.

Nearly seven out of ten viewers of the Timothée Chalamet-led film in the first three months of 2026 were women, according to Nielsen.

“Red, White & Royal Blue,” a 2023 political romcom Amazonhas 61% female viewers, Nielsen found.

Lionsgate shared Nielsen and CNBC data showing that women made up 60% of viewers since the premiere of last year’s “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” a same-sex romance drama involving a football player.

The next ‘Twilight’?

Female readers also focused their attention this year on “Heated Rivalry” and other male-male romances by author Rachel Reid on Fable, a book discussion forum hosted by Scribd. After working through Reid’s catalog, they appear to be picking up other titles from a smaller list, such as “The Song of Achilles,” a reimagining of Greek mythology published in 2011.

“This isn’t just one in a long line of mini trends,” said Kim Allee, Fable’s director of marketing. “This sounds like something more important than that.”

Exact statistics of book sales by gender can be difficult to track. But frankly, a large portion of male-male romance readers seem to be straight women, according to Jennifer Bokal, president-elect of the trade group Romance Writers of America.

Bokal said she saw women donating “Hot Rivals” merchandise “everywhere” at the BookCon convention in April. The excitement for the game and the book, Bokal said, is in the same league as “Fifty Shades of Grey” and “Twilight”.

Besides, “Hot Rivalry” and other male-male romances would be an unexpected choice for women, given that they are not represented as the main character or love interest. But Allee said Fable’s female users are struck by the emotional depth of this subgenre, so much so that “longing” has become a phrase that describes what draws them to these books.

“It shows people the kinds of love and romance they should have, regardless of gender,” said Gianna Saad, 30, whose bookshelf is lined with genre novels by writers including Scarlett Drake and TJ Klune. “There’s this depth to everything that happens in these kinds of books.”

Various stories are shown

Some of these titles have become popular songs in part because of the lyrics’ endorsement by feminist fans.

Reid’s novels have been among the most-read e-books on Scribd’s Everand subscription service this year, according to company data released this week. Broadly, Fable’s Allee said that male-male love stories have “romantasy” which is not known as the most popular genre of romance literature.

Amazon said “Red, White & Royal Blue” drove new subscriptions and quickly became one of the most-watched romcoms on its Prime Video platform. Both the “Red, White & Royal Blue” movie and the “Hot Rivalry” TV series have second installments in the works.

Viewers could see more gay love stories on screen between athletes as producers seek to emulate the “Heated Rivalry” playbook, said Tom Nunan, a producer and former network and studio executive who now teaches at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

But Nunan said the biggest lesson for Hollywood should be that producing real and authentic stories will be rewarded by audiences. The industry has long sought to gain the attention of women — who tend to account for the majority of audiences for scripted entertainment — with diverse and thought-provoking strategies, he said.

“When shows like ‘Heated Rivalry’ start, it reminds us: What a rich part of life we ​​should explore,” Nunan said. And it’s a reminder to “make sure we’re filling out our shows as accurately and authentically as possible, because everybody wins in that situation.”

While the release has garnered many fans and praise, LGBTQ+ advocates also warn that overall representation of the community on screen is declining.

GLAAD, a non-profit LGBTQ+ advocacy and media watchdog, said the share of LGBTQ+-themed films from major movie distributors dropped by nearly 14% from 2023 to 2024.

“On the one hand, I think it’s encouraging,” said Katherine Sender, a Cornell professor who studies LGBTQ+ media, about the excitement over “The Burning Rivalry.” “But on the other hand, I don’t think we should be too optimistic.”

‘All I can think about’

To be sure, not all male-male love stories have a large female audience. The “Heartstopper” series is on Netflixand “Love, Simon” romcom from Disney20th Century Fox both deviated slightly from male viewers in the first quarter, according to Nielsen.

There is also evidence that fans of this genre extend beyond women who identify as heterosexual. During CNN’s New Year’s Eve special, producer Andy Cohen asked singer Brandi Carlile if gay women felt the same way about “Heated Feud.”

“That’s all I can think of,” Carlile replied.