Why everybody’s so obsessive about Heated Rivalry

[ad_1] To outsiders, the phenomenon of Heated Rivalry couldn't appear extra unattainable: A present about two rival hockey gamers is among the hottest exhibits on HBO Max. Not solely that, however these two puck buddies have loads of intercourse. There has by no means been a second in historical past when the world has been extra obsessive about homosexual, Canadian, softcore porn.

Because the present premiered in late 2025, stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie have been on every red carpet and in every photoshoot, they usually’ve talked to seemingly each entertainment publication in existence. They’ve amassed thousands and thousands of social media followers in a single day. (Their co-stars have grow to be sizzling Hollywood commodities, as properly.) And at this Sunday’s Golden Globes , an awards present that brings collectively the largest film and TV actors on one stage, all eyes have been on the 2 heated rivals.

The depth of their stardom and the way rapidly the pair have ascended all raises the query: Why? What's it about Heated Rivalry that everybody loves? What itch is that this smutty hockey present scratching? Does the world merely thirst for hockey butts?

To get a greater perspective on the present’s reputation, I requested Vox’s e-book critic and senior correspondent Constance Grady for some assist explaining the recognition, the depth of that reputation, and why it's and isn’t in any respect stunning that girls, particularly, are powering the homosexual hockey smut second that we’re residing in.

Constance, please inform me what you considered Heated Rivalry . Have you ever learn the books?

I've to start out off by admitting that Heated Rivalry is a type of issues that's shut sufficient to the stuff I like that I believed I ought to get pleasure from it, however then I merely didn't.

That is how I really feel about confetti/funfetti cake. I like all of the issues that represent confetti cake — vanilla, celebration, icing, buttercream, sugar, cake — individually, nevertheless it simply doesn’t work for me.

Heated Rivalry is famously inspired by Actual Particular person Fanfiction, particularly hockey RPF, which is sufficiently big to be its personal style. (We’ll get into it.) I like love tales, and I like fan fiction, so I used to be able to be as obsessive about Heated Rivalry as everyone who watches it appears to be.

However I feel I merely learn an excessive amount of fan fiction to be stunned by the construction of the story! It's a very tropey narrative, which you count on from a romance. In e-book type, that’s a part of the pleasure of the style. Onscreen, although, I discovered myself craving extra surprises and extra specificity in the best way the characters developed and the best way they approached their relationship.

Additionally, on a regular basis jumps made me really feel like I ought to be doing math, and that burdened me out.

Although Heated Rivalry is a narrative in regards to the craving, burning love (or lust) between two male hockey gamers, ladies are an integral a part of its reputation success. Whereas not as common as heterosexual romance, homosexual man smut is definitely a really sturdy and common subgenre. Regardless of liking all the person elements that make up funfetti cake, Vox senior correspondent Alex Abad-Santos has but to style a funfetti cake he enjoys. This makes whole sense. Should you take a look at the construction of the primary couple of episodes, it goes from time bounce, to homosexual intercourse, to getting harangued by dad and mom, to time bounce, to homosexual intercourse, and on, and on. It’s not like there’s any attention-grabbing development both, as a result of the by means of line is that they’re simply kinda texting?

I'll push again a little bit on the concept there’s no development. The intercourse scenes are what bear the load of the character improvement, which is one thing I feel the present does fairly elegantly. ( There’s a great analysis here .) Inside that context, the time jumps are a part of the tropiness of all of it. It’s just like the present is saying, “Why waste time on something that’s not the love story?” I merely wished the development to shock me a little bit extra.

However though you weren’t a fan, it’s nonetheless an simple hit. Did that shock you?

Sure, and no! I'm not stunned that Heated Rivalry has an obsessive fan base, however I didn't count on it to garner as a lot mainstream consideration because it has.

Girls have been writing love tales about queer males — and inserting these tales into the media they learn and watch — for an extended, very long time. In Japan, the “Boys’ Love” style — fiction about two lovely boys in love, usually created by and for ladies — is absolutely huge , and it has been because it emerged within the Seventies. Within the US, we normally date the obsession again to the arrival of Kirk/Spock slash fan fiction across the similar time, when Star Trek fan writers started exploring the concept Kirk and Spock’s friendship might need romantic undertones. There’s been a large underserved viewers simply ready for a love story like this one for literal a long time. It is smart to me that they'd decide up on it and champion it.

I didn't count on that, like, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie can be the celebrities of this year’s Golden Globes . (HBO didn’t both, which is why Heated Rivalry came out well after this year’s nomination period closed . Even when the Globes have been keen to bend their guidelines for a Canadian-produced present, they bodily couldn’t have completed it.) It wasn’t all that way back that the concept ladies are into tales about males in love would result in fascinated tittering about how, in any case, males like girl-on-girl motion, too. And right here we're with homosexual hockey RPF on the middle of the mainstream! I genuinely would by no means have anticipated it.

I suppose one can by no means underestimate the facility of ladies who need to see some sizzling guys in love with one another.

<img alt="Connor Storrie in a scene from Heated Rivalry" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-13-at-4.32.44%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Whereas this present is about hockey and homosexual intercourse, it is also about two guys texting one another furiously. Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max

Was the Heated Rivalry collection already common in e-book gross sales? Was this merely only a matter of recognition crossing genres (with TV having an even bigger viewers, after all)?

Rachel Reid’s Recreation Changers e-book collection, of which Heated Rivalry is e-book two, was common sufficient earlier than this to get name-checked in a Washington Post article about hockey romance , however the scale was completely completely different. Heated Rivalry is a New York Instances bestseller now for the primary time. (It’s uncommon for style romance to make the New York Instances bestseller record, as a result of loads of the style’s gross sales undergo channels the Instances doesn’t monitor or doesn’t weigh closely.) Vanity Fair found that, for the reason that finish of 2024, library holds on the e-book have gone up 10,534 p.c. (!)

There was definitely a fan base ready for this present. However, I don’t assume anybody might have anticipated that it will blow up the best way it has.

One of many issues that struck me is that there’s a really massive variety of ladies obsessive about homosexual man smut. Heated Rivalry wouldn't be as massive if ladies weren’t . Is homosexual man smut a well-liked style for ladies readers within the e-book world?

Homosexual man smut is so common that there are whole books making an attempt to understand and explain why it's so common. There’s loads of nuance to why completely different ladies are so into it, however one fairly central thought is that homosexual man smut permits a lady the pleasure of studying a romance with out having to take care of all of the social baggage that comes with ladies’s our bodies. Internalized physique hatred, bizarre kinks, gendered energy dynamics — all of it will get neutralized. What’s left has room to grow to be lots freer and extra compelling.

I need to ask: Is homosexual man hockey smut significantly common? And as a subgenre, is homosexual man smut the preferred of all of the smuts?

I might not say male-male romance outsells hetero romance. Romance is a giant, booming world, one through which queer romance occupies a wholesome area of interest, however the biggest sellers there do are usually heterosexual.

Sports activities romance, nevertheless, can be a wholesome area of interest, and hockey romance is the undisputed king of the subgenre. Within the conventional publishing world, hockey romance novels are sufficiently big that professional hockey players have been making TikToks about reading them since properly earlier than Heated Rivalry hit HBO.

Within the fan world, nearly each fan author I've ever adopted finally ends up writing hockey RPF at one level or one other. “We’ve misplaced one other one,” is what I textual content my fic-reading associates when that occurs.

So what’s the take care of hockey? Why not tennis, or lacrosse, or baseball? Is it the butts ?

Some hockey romance fans have argued that it’s as a result of hockey is so violent. It’s the one sport that not solely nonetheless permits preventing, but additionally has a detailed code of conduct involving when and begin preventing. To place such macho guys right into a narrative that's by its nature about emotional vulnerability — properly, there’s a pleasant frisson of stress there.

<img alt="Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams from Heated Rivalry celebrate with champagne" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="mvmjsc0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/gettyimages-2255809390.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> These two are EVERYWHERE! Getty Pictures for Moët & Chandon

That is smart. Going again to what you mentioned in regards to the how homosexual romance permits ladies to take away themselves: Homosexual hockey smut additionally looks like a strategy to discover conventional concepts about masculinity (e.g., bodily power) and permitting your self to seek out eroticism in these concepts with out tying it to the boys (significantly straight ones) who're liable for making it so poisonous.

Completely. Plenty of the eroticism in Heated Rivalry comes from the sublimation of Ilya and Shane’s competitors on the ice into the bed room, in order that the typically violent aggression of the sport turns into neutralized and attractive. If that’s the fantasy you need to play with, there’s a sure attraction to easily erasing any nagging worries about how dangerous bodily violence between women and men can get.

And at last, the Winter Olympics are arising. Do you assume there’s any sport that has the possibility to out-gay hockey this yr?

Pay attention, if bodily peril is what makes for a terrific love story, the sports activities romance fandom should seriously be throwing more consideration behind bobsledding .