BDSM Kinks List: The most popular kinks in erotic fiction

Every BDSM story is built from a few kinks working together. A collar, a rule, a “good girl” at exactly the right moment. Pick the right combination and the scene clicks.

So which BDSM kinks do readers actually want? Instead of guessing, we counted how often each kink came up in RedQuill prompts in the last 90 days, and compared that with the 90 days before. Below are the top kinks ranked, then each one explained: what it is, and why it works on the page. If you’d rather start reading, there are about 8,600 public BDSM stories on RedQuill to browse.

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The top BDSM kinks at a glance

Here are the most requested kinks in RedQuill prompts over the last 90 days, by number of prompts that mention them:

1. Praise: 75,700
2. Collar: 32,200
3. Punishment: 32,000
4. Spanking: 30,000
5. Brat: 24,700
6. Edging: 20,700
7. Bondage: 17,500
8. Gag: 16,000
9. Aftercare: 14,600
10. Discipline: 13,800
11. Leash: 13,600
12. Obedience: 12,200
13. Femdom: 11,400
14. Rope: 10,300
15. Cuffs: 8,500
16. Orgasm denial: 6,800
17. Blindfold: 6,200
18. Pet play: 4,900
19. Cane: 4,800
20. Sensory deprivation: 4,400

Just outside the top 20 sit subspace (3,600), wax (3,450), predicament (3,200) and forced orgasm (2,900), some of the fastest risers in the data.

Humiliation is missing on purpose: we measured it as a pairing, not a standalone count. It turns up in 20% of BDSM prompts and 34% of punishment prompts, right alongside praise.

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Verbal and emotional kinks

Praise

Praise kink is arousal from being told you’re doing well: “good girl,” “that’s it,” “so proud of you.” It is far and away the biggest kink on RedQuill, with 75,700 prompts in the last 90 days, and “good girl” alone appears in 17,800. It works in fiction because it turns submission into something the character earns and the reader feels rewarded for. Praise also mixes with everything: it shows up in 34% of spanking prompts and 44% of subspace prompts.

Humiliation

Humiliation play is consensual embarrassment: being teased, exposed or made to admit what you want out loud. It puts the character’s pride on the line, then lets them surrender it by choice. The best scenes are negotiated in advance and balanced with tenderness. Browse humiliation stories to see the range.

Obedience

Obedience kink is pleasure in following instructions exactly, and the dominant’s pleasure in giving them. It appeared in 12,200 prompts in the last 90 days, up 55%. It works on the page because every command is a small test, and the reader waits to see whether the submissive passes or deliberately fails.

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Symbols of ownership

Collar

A collar marks a submissive as someone’s, either as a playful accessory or as a deep, committed symbol in a long-term dynamic. With 32,200 prompts it is the second most requested kink on RedQuill, and 15% of BDSM prompts include one. Collars work in fiction because they make an invisible bond visible. The moment one gets fastened, or taken off, is almost always a turning point.

Leash

A leash takes the collar’s meaning and adds direction: someone leads, someone follows. It appeared in 13,600 prompts. A gentle tug can do more than a paragraph of dialogue.

Pet play

Pet play is a roleplay where an adult takes on the mindset of a pet, often a kitten or puppy, with an owner who cares for and trains them. Prompts rose 41% to 4,900 in the last 90 days, and 8% of BDSM prompts mention it. It works because it is playful, affectionate and about care, not just control. You can find plenty of examples in pet play stories.

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Rules, structure and consequences

Punishment

Punishment is a consensual consequence for breaking an agreed rule. At 32,000 prompts (up 25%), it is the third biggest kink on the list. It creates a plot inside the scene: a cause, an effect, a reckoning. Inside punishment prompts, 34% mention humiliation, 27% praise and 21% gentle, so readers clearly want the sting and the softness together. We cover the options in depth in our guide to BDSM punishments. Its longer-arc cousin, discipline (13,800 prompts), suits slow burns where rules and routines build over chapters.

Brat

A brat is a submissive who pushes back on purpose, teasing and testing until the dominant takes charge. Brat showed up in 24,700 prompts, with “bratty” in another 19,000. It turns submission into a game with stakes. Read more in our guide to brat BDSM.

Predicament

Predicament play puts a character in a position where every choice has a trade-off. It appeared in 3,200 prompts, up 14%, and 34% of those also mention humiliation. It’s delicious in fiction because the character is restrained but still choosing, and every choice reveals something about them.

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Impact play

Spanking

Spanking is the most popular form of impact play by a wide margin, at 30,000 prompts (up 31%). It is intimate, ritualized and loaded with emotion: the position, the counting, the comfort afterward. There are around 670 public spanking stories on RedQuill.

Cane

The cane is the strict, serious implement, associated with formality and sharp, memorable sensation. Prompts rose 51% to 4,800. A cane in a story signals a dominant who means business, so writers tend to save it for the climax of a scene.

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Restraint kinks

Bondage on its own appeared in 17,500 prompts, and about 1,700 public bondage stories sit on RedQuill. Within that, a few specific forms stand out.

Gag

A gag takes away speech, which shifts all communication to the body. It appeared in 16,000 prompts, and 15% of bondage prompts include one. It forces the dominant to read every small sign, and good writers always show the nonverbal safe signal agreed in advance.

Rope and cuffs

Rope (10,300 prompts) is slow and ritual: every wrap is a beat of anticipation. Cuffs (8,500) are restraint with no ceremony. They click shut and the scene begins. Pick rope for a slow burn and cuffs for a charged, sudden handover.

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Sensation and denial

Edging

Edging is bringing someone right to the brink of release, then stopping, again and again. With 20,700 prompts, it’s one of the top six kinks overall, and it turns up in 17% of spanking prompts and 16% of bondage prompts. It is pure tension, and tension keeps readers turning pages. See edging stories for examples.

Orgasm denial

Orgasm denial stretches edging into a rule: no release until the dominant allows it, sometimes for days. It rose 48% to 6,800 prompts. In a story, it creates a ticking clock and a running power dynamic that can span chapters. Browse orgasm denial stories.

Forced orgasm

In fiction, forced orgasm means a negotiated scene where the submissive has agreed in advance to be given more pleasure than they would choose in the moment, with safewords firmly in place. It rose 71% to 2,900 prompts, and ruined orgasm rose 50% to 800. It flips denial on its head: the overwhelm is the point. Explore forced orgasm stories.

Wax

Wax play uses the warmth of dripped candle wax as sensation. It appeared in 3,450 prompts, and 4% of BDSM prompts mention it. It is vivid on the page: heat, color, the pause before each drop. Its cool counterpart, the ice cube, is small but rising, up 49% to 530.

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Sensory kinks

Blindfold

A blindfold removes sight and sharpens everything else. Prompts rose 41% to 6,200. It lets the writer slow down and describe sound, touch and scent, and it is often a character’s first step into kink.

Sensory deprivation

Sensory deprivation goes further: sight, sound and sometimes touch are limited so the character is alone with sensation and anticipation. It rose 69% to 4,400 prompts. It pulls the reader into a narrowed, heightened world where one touch feels enormous.

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The fastest rising BDSM kinks

The most interesting kinks in the data aren’t the biggest. They’re the fastest growing. Compared with the previous 90 days:

• Sub drop: up 129% (390 prompts). The emotional low that can follow an intense scene. Readers increasingly want stories that show the morning after, not just the night.
• Subspace: up 93% (3,600 prompts). The floaty, deeply relaxed state a submissive can reach mid-scene. Within subspace prompts, 44% mention praise, 36% gentle and 30% aftercare. We explore it fully in our post on subspace in BDSM.
• Forced orgasm: up 71% (2,900 prompts). Negotiated overwhelm, as above.
• Sensory deprivation: up 69% (4,400 prompts). Readers want scenes that live inside the character’s senses.

The pattern is striking. The fastest growth is in kinks about the submissive’s inner experience: what they feel during a scene and how they feel after it. Readers aren’t just asking for more intensity. They want more depth.

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Aftercare: the kink that holds the others together

Aftercare is the care that follows a scene: water, blankets, soft words, talking through what happened. It isn’t always called a kink, but readers request it like one. It appeared in 14,600 prompts in the last 90 days, up 39%, and it shows up in 30% of subspace prompts and 10% of spanking and bondage prompts.

It’s where the emotional payoff lands. The intensity of a scene means more when the reader sees the dominant slow down and care for the person who trusted them.

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How to combine kinks in a story

Readers rarely ask for one kink alone. The data shows how they pair up:

• Praise with almost anything. It appears in 20% of BDSM prompts, 27% of punishment prompts and 34% of spanking prompts.
• Punishment with humiliation. A third of punishment prompts include it.
• Gentle with intense. “Gentle” appears in 17% of BDSM prompts and 21% of punishment prompts.

A good rule of thumb: pick one kink for the action, one for the emotion and one for the ending. Spanking, praise, aftercare. Blindfold, edging, a collar fastened at the end. That’s a scene with shape.

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If you try this for real

Fiction can skip the logistics. Real life can’t. If a kink on this list inspires you, agree on a safeword first (the traffic light system is a good start), never leave someone who is restrained alone, keep safety shears nearby, check circulation and nerve feeling often, and keep impact away from the spine and kidneys. Learn from experienced educators and your local kink community before trying anything intense.

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Read or write your favorite kinks on RedQuill

Every community story on RedQuill is free to read. Start with BDSM stories, or go straight to a dynamic like femdom, bondage stories or spanking stories.

If your exact combination doesn’t exist yet, write it. Type a prompt and RedQuill’s AI writes the story, which you can continue chapter by chapter, steer, edit, fork and publish. Name two or three kinks, the relationship between the characters, the safeword and how you want it to end. For example: “A married couple’s anniversary weekend. She asked for a blindfold, praise and edging, with orange as the slow-down word. End with aftercare in the bath.”

Describe your scene and RedQuill writes it.

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BDSM kinks FAQ

What are the most common BDSM kinks?

Based on RedQuill prompts in the last 90 days, the most requested BDSM kinks are praise, collars, punishment, spanking, brats, edging and bondage. Humiliation is also very common, appearing in about a fifth of BDSM prompts.

What is the most popular kink in erotic fiction?

On RedQuill, praise kink is the clear leader, with 75,700 prompts in the last 90 days. That’s more than double the next kink on the list.

What is a praise kink?

A praise kink is arousal from being told you’re doing well, with phrases like “good girl” or “so proud of you.” In BDSM fiction it often rewards obedience and pairs naturally with spanking, punishment and aftercare.

What kinks are growing fastest in BDSM fiction?

Sub drop, subspace, forced orgasm and sensory deprivation are rising fastest on RedQuill, each up between 69% and 129% compared with the previous 90 days. Most of them focus on the submissive’s inner experience.

Is aftercare a kink?

Strictly speaking it’s a practice rather than a kink, but readers request it like one. Aftercare appeared in 14,600 RedQuill prompts in the last 90 days, up 39%, and it often gives a BDSM story its emotional ending.

How do I find out what my kinks are?

Reading is one of the safest ways to explore. Notice which scenes you reread and which you skip. Fiction lets you try a kink in your imagination first, before you ever talk about it with a partner.