Is Big Nate Getting Worse? (Statistical Study)

There have recently been numerous complaints about the Big Nate Comment Strip. Commenters are saying that Author Lincoln Peirce is running out of ideas and the strips are becoming dull and boring.

So I, Henry Hudson, decided to do a little study on GoComics to see if this is true.

I first compared 5, random older arcs. The Max Number of Pins refers to the amount of pins the strip with the most pins had in that arc.

'''Note: This is a completely unbiased study. The random arcs were found using the random button. Some arcs I got were rejected because of when they were from.''' Then, I compared 5 recent arcs.

Trends

 * The average pins from the older arcs tend to vary more.
 * The average pins of the new arcs are consistently in the 12-18 range.
 * The newer Sunday Strips seem to be less liked than the older ones.
 * The max pins of the older arcs vary quite a bit, the newer ones do as well but not as much.

Summary
The newer arcs seem to be consistently less popular than the older arcs, the same with the Sunday Strips. But one must keep in mind that the newer comic strips are much more popular, as they are uploaded daily. The number of comments on the newer comics strips vs. the older ones reflects that very clearly.

Although stating that the comics are getting worse is merely an opinion, this study has shown that this opinion is shared by many.

'''This study is unfinished. I would like to get some more info before completing it.'''