50 first (online) dates: some numbers

Since I love numbers so much, I thought I would compile some stats on my 50 first online dates and share the results. The majority of these dates happened within the last year. These results may or may not match the typical online dating experience. While I’m a pretty attractive guy and I’ve had great results, I definitely could have gotten even faster or better results with in-person game. The number of total matches should probably be around 2-3x higher to account for all the people I’ve unmatched or who have unmatched me. There are also probably around 10 phone numbers that I’ve deleted or lost contact info for while switching phones. All the dates are accounted for; I might be missing one or two flakes here and there, they don’t really happen that often for me so this is just going off of memory.

I’m kind of surprised the racial breakdown is only 76% White, I thought it’d be higher since I definitely have a thing for brunettes and I also seem to attract a lot of Jewish chicks. The height numbers are less surprising, I do tend to like taller girls though. I didn’t include height unless I had confirmed numbers, but just from eyeballing there were probably a few girls that were 5’11”. Hard to tell with heels though. The age and education numbers make sense, I’ve actually matched with a lot of women with advanced degrees, but finding the time to set up a date that works with their schedule is always a hassle, which is why the actual date numbers are so low.

I think the day of the week breakdown is interesting. I always try and aim for Sunday/Thursday dates, so I’m a little surprised the Thursday numbers are so low. I like to keep my Fridays/Saturdays for hanging out with friends or going on 3rd/4th/5th dates, so I usually only schedule first dates on those days when the girl suggests it. The average cost makes sense, $13 is right around the price for two drinks, tax, and tip, which is a go-to first date activity for me. 70% of the girls helped pay, which I actually thought would be a lot lower. I used to not mind picking up the whole tab and did it a lot early on, but as time went on and I was going on 4+ dates a week I dialed it wayyyy back.

After all these first dates, I only wanted to see about 44% of them again. Part of it is needing to up my first date standards to match my actual standards, which all my friends say are too high, but fuck them. I definitely need to get better at reading the writing on the wall, there were multiple dates where I should have just called it a night after the first round of drinks or the first venue, but I kept going even when I wasn’t interested and had no intention of seeing the chick again. At the same time, I’ve also messed up a few dates by ending it abruptly when we were both having a good time and I’ve definitely missed some hints from a few girls that wanted to go back to their/my place. I’ll definitely be slowing down from here, setting up all these dates is kind of exhausting and cut heavily into the time I usually spend on my hobbies and seeing my friends, so I want to get back to a nice balance. Anyway, those are just my numbers and thoughts on the experience and I thought it'd be interesting to share.