following vs successive

following

adj
  • Coming next, either in sequence or in time. 

  • About to be specified. 

  • Blowing in the direction of travel. 

noun
  • A thing or things to be mentioned immediately after. 

  • A group of followers, attendants or admirers; an entourage. 

  • Vocation; business; profession. 

prep
  • After, subsequent to. 

successive

adj
  • Coming one after the other in a series. 

  • Of or relating to the grammatical aspect which presupposes the completion of a secondary action as a premise for the primary action of the statement. 

  • Of, or relating to a succession; hereditary. 

How often have the words following and successive occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )