To expand a bit, there are two things to consider: time investment and focus:
1 I have only spent an average of 3 hours or so (with fluctuations) since March 2021 and nowadays it’s like 80% listening. Chytran has probably invested double the number of hours despite starting half a year later so it’s no surprise he’s farther ahead.
2 What you do determines your results. To the best of my knowledge I have read more in Chinese on LingQ than anyone else, but still have trouble reading, what’s going on? Answer: transcripts. Tons of relatively easy content, YouTube videos and transcribed podcasts (first payed now whispered). 1h = 8000 words. Also I’ve been cheating all along by reading and listening at the same time, if I take the audio away my reading speed goes to hell, probably only 1/3rd. Conversational and literary vocabulary are pretty much unrelated in Chinese, at least my 65k known words don’t seem to contain much/any of the latter.
Anyways, there is at least one person who has prioritized pure literary reading from the beginning but she unfortunately quit because of LingQ’s bugginess. Login - LingQ Would have been good to have her weigh in, pretty sure she’s comfortable reading just about anything by now.
Also I’m pretty sure that learners of Japanese and Korean insist that their languages are harder than Chinese 
Hi CAnders, you’ve made great progress. What’s your study plan, did you have prior experience in German? I’ve only recently started to make good progress in German, which I’ve been learning from absolute 0. I don’t stop lingqing until I hit 75 known a day, takes about 85 minutes. In German, I read the hunger games trilogy-(paper books), and I limped through it over the course of a year, I wonder how much I really got out of it.
As for your Q, reading at a higher level, in French (34k-words) I’ll have stretches where I read in french just like it’s in english, but that’s in Harry potter (6th book now). With game of thrones in french I can read it just fine, but have to live with unknown words on each page. I’m looking forward to any tips you might have.
Sometimes it feels like that. I get sick sometimes pushing myself too hard ahaha…
I think it depends on a lot of factors, but the main 4 are:
- time invested in reading
- age
- intelligence/skill
- focus/determination
I am in my forties and my brain no longer picks up things as quickly as it did in my twenties. Back then at uni I would hear something once and it would stick. Now, it is a painful process. Related to the 4th point: I learn Chinese as a hobby and not even as my main hobby. I am super busy at work and with several other committments Quite frankly, when I come home, I am often simply too tired and exhausted and prefer something relaxing (like zoning out on the sofa watching Netflix or reading internet posts). You could call it lack of willpower, but I also have to be mindful and empathic to myself and my body’s demand for rest.
Ultimately, since starting to learn Chinese in 2019 I have always had phases of 1-2 months of intensive studying and 1-3 months off virtually no studying. Those study-free periods are obviously not ideal as it makes you forget things and start all over. But, life gets in the way and such is life.