But Fifty Shades of Grey also may have benefited from coming after Twilight but being based on the formula of that vampire series.
There’s been a lot of speculation over the years about why Fifty Shades has resonated so strongly with the fanbase.
Also true is the fact that BDSM fiction had not been widely marketed in the way Fifty Shades has been, at least at the time of its release.
Sometimes a project will develop a small fanbase and then fan out due to good marketing or strong word of mouth, as happened with Schitt’s Creek in its later seasons on TV.