As the title implies, this is a discussion about comedy vs seriousness, but in the context of which is more popular on RRl. Personally, I believe it's the former, but I'd like to add that I recognize that most stories have a mix of the two. My question is, which one appeals to more readers and why?
I think the nature of webnovels (fast, serial, not too much thinking involved) means that they tend to largely favor comedy over seriousness, but again, this is a generalization and doesn't apply universally.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Comment below and you could win a free Krill Cookie!

I'd say comedy over seriousness. But as you said, most novels are a mix of the two. From what I've seen (not that I've seen a lot anyway), there seem to be more comedies than serious stories, yet, ironically, if you look at the top, the best stories are mainly serious stories.

Most of us read JP novels before discovering about CN, KR novels or RRL, and JP novels are mainly comedies. That's probably why newbie readers are more used to read comedies rather than serious stories.
Then, it's also about managing the stories. I personally believe that writing a serious story is more difficult than writing a comedy. Even if you don't have a lot of sense of humour, you just have to include some running gags, misunderstandings and absurd situations, and you get your comedy. On the other hand, serious story are focusing on the world building and the plot. So, obviously, it's more work for the writer. However, unlike comedies going nowhere or becoming too redundant, if it's handled the right way, it'll be easier to keep the readers' interest.

But in the end, I believe the best stories are always a mix of the two. A too serious story with a heavy atmosphere can be a pain to read, while a 100% comedy with no plot and too many gags can become quickly annoying. Andur's novels are a good example. All his stories are generaly serious, but he still add some black humour and comic situations.

there 're more comedy fictions on RRL than serious ones while mixture of both comes in between in numbers

i think people paying more time to read comedy ones since as u say, comedy fiction often need less effort, consequently, less time, to write, as a result, chapters and stories being written more frequently

however, depends on how much effort the writers put on their works, people will stuck with the stories longer or shorter, sometimes the comedies just get overused, or, the amount of efforts put into them just too little that people start leaving as the stories go

while people may spend more time to read comedy stories, because of the frequency of the releases, they spend more time pressing F5 waiting for new serious (or semi-serious) fictions' chapters releases =))
i myself spend tons of time visiting 'Latest Chapters' page or individual latest chapters' posts to check for new releases or news from authors of certain works :v

personally, looking at my own reading list, i see a full list of which-can-be-considered-'serious'-and-'serious'-fictions
-Andur's series
-Scotff14's series
-A Hero's War
-Forgotten Conqueror
-Astros Imperium
-The One Who Seeks Power
-etc.
though i also read comedy stories, their lifespans 're just simply sooo short and they 're of much lower-quality comparing to the mentioned XD