Call of Duty isn’t the first series people think of when they think of smut, but it turns out the romantic adventures of John ‘Soap’ MacTavish and Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley are some of the most viewed fanfictions of 2023.
Since a certain stealth mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the internet’s shipping for Soap and Ghost has reached maximum capacity. Alongside cute cartoons of the characters on TikTok, writers have created a fair amount of fan fiction stories about the two, some of course being smutty in nature.
Revealed in the annual AO3 Ship Stats for 2023, Call of Duty’s pairing was the second most popular game for fanfictions of the year, beaten only by Genshin Impact. The shipping pair was also the sixth most popular tag on the entire websites, beating Baldur’s Gate 3, Harry Potter and even BTS.
Over the course of 2023, fanfic writers wrote 7,074 new stories of the two Call of Duty characters. The AO3 website now boasts over 8,800 stories of the soldiers at the time of writing, with more undoubtedly to come.
While the population of the Call of Duty franchise is massive, the series hasn’t really hit the fanfiction crowd before, at least not in this way. However, following the deep sexual tension of Soap and Ghost in Modern Warfare 2’s “Alone” mission, the internet has rallied behind the two’s relationship, even if the undeserved ending of Modern Warfare 3 has ruined that for some.
Nevertheless, it is surprising to see such a strong connection between fan fiction writers and characters in a Call of Duty game. Hopefully, the series’ upcoming Black Ops sequel will give fans even more relationships to explore as well as a better campaign.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3 are now available to play on Xbox, PlayStation and PC.
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