The time has come for us to launch our official annual study into the world’s biggest fandoms and discover which fan bases are bigger than ever in 2022.
Looking back at the past five years, we are excited to look at a huge range of fandoms across the entertainment industry and see what’s changed.
After collecting all the data on the fast-growing fandoms in television, film franchises, and video games on Reddit, we analyzed the percentages of growth for each fandom to gain a full understanding about which ones are the most popular and which ones are slowly declining.
Many people believe that The Office is one of the funniest shows ever created considering Michael Scott’s ‘World’s Best Boss’ mug and the ongoing silly pranks between Dwight and Jim. It was surprising to see the sitcom take the second spot on the list although the show ended nearly a decade ago! The US sitcom was beaten only by Family Guy, which took 2022’s top spot list of TV fandoms with almost three times the percentage increase (3,486%) in five years.
Rick and Morty, a show about an alcoholic scientist and his grandson going on out of this world adventures, took the top spot as the show with the most new fans – with more than two million more over the past five years.
Top 10 TV shows with the most subscriber growth (TV show and the number of people who’ve subscribed since 2017)
TV Show
Sub Growth
Rick and Morty
2,604,963
Game of Thrones
2,992,269
The Office US
1,966,232
Breaking Bad
1,543,202
The Walking Dead
1,539,448
South Park
1,357,495
Avatar: The Last Airbender
1,120,234
Westworld
999,177
Family Guy
989,754
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
753,327
Top 10 TV shows with the highest percentage increase in popularity (TV show and the fandom percentage increase since 2017)
TV Show
% Increase
Family Guy
3,486%
The Office US
1,247%
Rick and Morty
668%
Avatar: The Last Airbender
659%
South Park
619%
Breaking Bad
616%
Westworld
417%
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
417%
The Walking Dead
398%
Game of Thrones
265%
Looking into film franchises, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) ranked the highest fandom for both subscriber growth and percentage increase with two and a half million (2,500,090) new followers in the past five years and a 2,310% increase.
In second place for percentage increase in the movie category is the critically acclaimed Dune, based on the 1965 novel of the same name. The Dune fandom had a 1,930% increase and is expected to increase more with the next Dune movie set to release in 2023. Star Wars takes second place for subscriber growth with a whopping 1,694,751 new subscribers.
Top 10 film franchises with the most subscriber growth (Film franchise and the number of people who’ve subscribed since 2017)
Film Franchise
Sub Growth
MCU
2,608,298
Star Wars
2,242,983
Harry Potter
1,253,692
Disney films
928,180
The Lord of the Rings
654,441
DC
324,599
Dune
205,865
Studio Ghibli
202,764
James Bond
69,600
The Hunger Games
42,088
Top 10 film franchises with the highest percentage increase in popularity (Film franchise and the fandom percentage increase since 2017)
Film Franchise
% Growth
MCU
2,310%
Dune
1,930%
Disney films
1,205%
DC
844%
Studio Ghibli
539%
The Lord of the Rings
491%
Harry Potter
349%
James Bond
331%
Star Wars
309%
The Hunger Games
140%
Video games are near and dear to our hearts at FandomSpot, so we love seeing which gaming fandoms have grown the most.
Unsurprisingly, Fortnite topped the list for video game fandoms with a staggering 194,655,400% increase – since it is an entirely new fandom in the past five years. Although only being released in 2017, the game has a staggering 1,946,555 subscribers in the Fortnite Reddit.
Grand Theft Auto V has also seen a large growth – by 2,371% – in the last five years. Call of Duty has had a 1,904% fandom increase in the past five years, putting it third place in the video game category.
Top 10 video game series with the most subscriber growth (Video game and the number of people who’ve subscribed since 2017)
Game Series
Sub Growth
Minecraft
6,577,832
League of Legends
5,860,539
Pokémon Go
3,867,154
The Legend of Zelda
2,044,754
Fortnite
1,946,555
Skyrim
1,315,880
Halo
1,249,056
GTA V Online
1,220,957
Fallout
880,706
Call of Duty
810,617
Top 10 video game series with the highest percentage increase in popularity (Video game and the percentage increase in popularity since 2017)
Game Series
% Growth
Fortnite
194,655,400%
GTA V Online
2,371%
Call of Duty
1,904%
Minecraft
1,350%
The Legend of Zelda
1,224%
Halo
756%
League of Legends
527%
Pokémon Go
455%
Skyrim
237%
Fallout
162%
For our ‘Annual Fandom Report’, we conducted research into the fastest-growing fandoms across multimedia platforms – television shows, film franchises and video games – based on Reddit data.
It’s clear now that some legacy fandoms that we’ve all loved for a long time aren’t going anywhere soon and we’re likely to be seeing the likes of The Office and GTA for many years to come. That being said, it’s been great to see newer fandoms like Dune and Fortnite experiencing such hype.
How does your favorite fandom rank? Please let us know what you think!
