End of Year, 2024, Report on Play Makes Us Human

Here are some numbers on growth of "Play Makes Us Human" this year, and more.

Dear friends,

On this last day of 2024, it seems appropriate to post a brief report with some numbers about the growth of this substack, Play Makes Us Human, over the year.

I began the substack on April 18, 2023, with this introductory post on what I mean by “play make us human” and how that thesis might be pursued.

Between Dec 30, 2023, and Dec 30, 2024, I posted 52 letters, averaging one a week. Thirty-four were numbered essays (#27 - #61) and an additional 18 were commentaries, in which I provided follow-up thoughts or responses to comments on a preceding numbered essay or thoughts that were a digression from the major themes of the substack.

Between Dec. 30, 2023, and Dec. 30, 2024, the number of:

• subscribers (paid plus unpaid) increased from 5,977 to 14,117 – a 136% increase;

• paid subscribers increased from 134 to 255 – a 90% increase;

• followers increased from 6,021 to 20,916 – a 247% increase.

So, counting subscribers and followers, 35,033 people seem to be at least relatively regular readers of these letters.

That’s OK, but I would love to see greater growth, especially in the number of paid subscribers. If you work out the ratios, you see that the percentage of subscribers who paid dropped from 2.2% at the end of 2023 to 1.8% at the end of 2024.

The net income I received from paid subscriptions over the year was $11,317. As promised, I donated all of that to nonprofit organizations with which I have worked or am working (and in three cases helped to found), which are helping bring more play and freedom to children’s lives. The organizations are:

Alliance for Self-Directed Education (ASDE)

Let Grow

National Institute for Play (NIfP)

Alternative Education Resources Organization (AERO)

Defending the Early Years (DEY)

Evolution Institute

Check out the websites of these terrific organizations.

Of course, my main goal in this substack is to get the word out, to get ever more people thinking, talking, and doing something about the need for more play in our society, especially for children but also for adults. So, the more subscribers the better, paid or unpaid. Nobody should feel discouraged from subscribing if they don’t feel they can afford to pay, or even if they just have more important things to do with that money.

However, I would love it if those of you who feel you could easily afford the $50 a year to become a paid subscriber or $100 to become a “founding subscriber,” and might even feel good about it, would do so. I would love it because your payment is a clue to me that you value these essays, which, of course, gives me a psychological boost that keeps me going in this endeavor. And I would love it also because it would add, next year, to the contributions I can pass on to the extraordinary organizations I have just listed.

Creative Commons

Peter