Every profile on FakeDate is fake. The numbers aren't. Each reality-check card in the deck comes from one of these sources — peer-reviewed studies, Pew Research, and the dating companies' own data.
On Tinder, men swiped right 46% of the time. Women: 14%.
Tinder data via The New York Times / TIME, 2014
Researchers ran test profiles: the male ones matched 0.6% of the time. The female ones, 10.5%.
Tyson et al., "A First Look at User Activity on Tinder", ASONAM 2016
Median first message from men: 12 characters. From women: 122.
Tyson et al., ASONAM 2016
"hey", "hi" and "hello" were among the worst-performing first messages in 500k+ OkCupid openers.
OkCupid / OkTrends, "Exactly What to Say in a First Message", 2009
People message matches ~25% more "desirable" than themselves — and reply rates drop the higher they aim.
Bruch & Newman, Science Advances, 2018
39% of straight couples who met in 2017 met online — more than through friends.
Rosenfeld, Thomas & Hausen, PNAS, 2019
30% of US adults have used a dating app. Under 30? 53%.
Pew Research Center, 2023
64% of men felt insecure about getting too few messages. 54% of women felt overwhelmed by too many.
Pew Research Center, 2023
56% of women under 50 on dating apps were sent sexually explicit messages they never asked for.
Pew Research Center, 2023
About 1 in 4 adults say they have been ghosted by a partner — and about as many admit to ghosting.
Freedman, Powell, Le & Williams, Journal of Social Psychology, 2022
78% of dating app users say they feel burned out.
Forbes Health / OnePoll survey, 2024
Match Group paying users fell 6% to 13.3M — while revenue per payer rose 6% to $21.13/month.
Match Group Q2 2026 prepared remarks
A 2024 class action alleged Tinder and Hinge are designed to be addictive. Match Group called it "ridiculous".
Claims Journal, Feb 2024
Eye-tracking: viewers spend about 83% of their time on a profile looking at the face.
Gale, Torbay & Lykins, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2024
HOW THE GAME USES THIS
Match odds, the likes flood, dry texters and ghosting are tuned to the asymmetries above — exaggerated for comedy, but pointed in the direction the data points. Everyone you meet is generated: faces by an image model, conversations by a language model. No real person is ever shown or messaged.