Crown discovery uses three different shelves instead of one universal leaderboard. Most Crowned recognizes broad current support, Ascending looks for unusually strong support among emerging stories, and Fresh Finds protects a path for recently published stories that are still building an audience.
If you are new to Crowns, read What Are Reader Crowns? first. To understand how readers earn their weekly recommendations, see How Reader Levels and Weekly Crowns Work.
Most Crowned
Most Crowned answers, “What are readers actively recommending right now?”
It orders public stories by their total valid Crown placements during the rolling previous 28 days. This is intentionally a raw measure of recent, broad support, so stories with larger active audiences may perform well here. Ties favor the story with the more recent Crown.
The rolling window keeps discovery current. A story's older placements remain in its private lifetime analytics, but they eventually stop affecting its public count and Most Crowned position.
Ascending
Ascending answers, “Which emerging stories are earning unusually strong reader support for the audience they currently have?”
“Unusually strong” means that an emerging story is turning a greater-than-typical share of its qualified readers into distinct Crown supporters. A large raw audience is not enough by itself.
Who can become an Ascending candidate?
A story must have:
- 10–99 lifetime qualified readers;
- At least three new qualified readers during the previous seven days;
- At least two of those newly qualified readers placing a valid Crown during the same seven days; and
- A recent support rate above the site-wide support rate.
These gates require both new reading activity and evidence that recently qualified readers are choosing to recommend the story.
How the Ascending score is calculated
Eligible stories are scored over the rolling previous 28 days:
Ascending score =
(distinct supporters + 20 × site-wide support rate)
/ (active qualified readers + 20)
Distinct supporters counts each reader once, even if that person Crowned the story in more than one week. Active qualified readers are qualified readers who completed story content or placed a valid Crown during the same 28-day window. The site-wide support rate compares distinct supporter relationships with active qualified reader relationships across all stories.
The added weight of 20 pulls small samples toward the site-wide average. For example, if the site-wide support rate is 20% and a story has 8 supporters among 20 active qualified readers, its raw support rate is 40%, but its adjusted Ascending score is 30%:
(8 + 20 × 0.20) / (20 + 20) = 12 / 40 = 30%
This smoothing prevents a story with two supporters out of two readers from automatically outranking a story with broader evidence.
How the weekly shelf is selected
The list refreshes every Monday. The top 60 eligible stories form the candidate pool:
- 13 positions go to the highest adjusted scores.
- Up to 12 additional positions use a deterministic weighted rotation that still favors stronger scores.
- The shelf shows at most one story per author.
- After appearing for two consecutive weeks, a story enters a two-week cooldown before it can return.
The rotation gives qualified emerging stories a chance to be seen without making the shelf random or allowing the same authors to occupy several positions.
At 100 lifetime qualified readers, a story permanently graduates from Ascending. It can continue receiving Crowns and appearing in Most Crowned; it simply no longer competes as an emerging story.
Fresh Finds
Fresh Finds answers, “Which recently published, still-under-discovered stories should readers get a chance to see?”
A story can appear when it is:
- Public, published, and currently readable;
- Within the first 90 days after its earliest chapter was first published; and
- Still below 100 qualified readers and has never previously reached that threshold.
Deleting or unpublishing the first chapter does not reset the story's age.
How Fresh Finds is ordered
Fresh Finds groups eligible stories into audience-size bands based on their qualified-reader counts. Stories with smaller qualified audiences receive the earlier bands. Within each band, the order rotates deterministically each day so the same stories do not always receive the first positions.
Crown totals do not determine whether a story appears in Fresh Finds or where it is ordered. The shelf exists to give new stories exposure before popularity can become the only path to discovery.
When a story reaches 100 qualified readers, it permanently graduates from Fresh Finds. It does not re-enter later if its live qualified-reader count falls.
Why the three paths stay separate
Using separate discovery paths prevents one success pattern from dominating the platform:
- Most Crowned rewards broad, recent recommendations.
- Ascending identifies strong recommendation rates among emerging stories while correcting for small audiences.
- Fresh Finds gives young stories exposure before they have enough readers to compete on Crown momentum.
Together, they let readers find proven favorites, promising momentum, and genuinely new work for different reasons.