From Deadpool to Warhammer, Marvel and Video Games Dominate Fandom's List of Top Entertainment Franchises

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As far as Fandom is concerned, entertainment in 2024 was ruled by video games. The fan-generated entertainment and gaming resource platform known for its collection of wikis has compiled lists of the top entertainment franchises of the year utilizing its first-party data to calculate a score weighted against five criteria — Worldbuilding, High Critical and Fan Ratings, Fierce Fanbase, Cultural Relevance, and Consistency. Among the top 20 overall franchises, 75% of the list was made up of gaming properties, with the tabletop multimedia franchise Warhammer taking the #1 spot. Movies and television weren't completely left in the dust, however, as Marvel continued its dominance by placing at #4 and landing at or near the top of the film and television lists.

This marked the first time in Fandom's history that gaming took a majority of the top spots at all, let alone by such a wide margin. Notable names near the top include the ever-popular survival crafting game Terraria at #2, the MOBA giant League of Legends at #3, which also benefitted from the recent release of Arcane Season 2, the long-running RPG series Final Fantasy at #5, which debuted the Game of the Year-nominated Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth and Dawntrail, the latest expansion to the critically-acclaimed Final Fantasy XIV, and Fallout, which shot to #7 with the release of the new television series. Though best known for its tabletop entries, Warhammer also benefitted from a new video game — Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 — making its chart debut atop the video game list. The medium thrived this year, especially thanks to the relative lack of major franchise film and television entries following last year's WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and the continued prominence of the biggest names in gaming. Even smaller projects, like the rising star indie survival title Core Keeper, managed to crack the overall lineup.

The success of gaming also began to bleed into the non-gaming charts. With so much anticipation for Arcane Season 2, the League of Legends series's emotional finale rocketed the show to the very top of the television chart, beating out not just Marvel, but also the fourth place Star Wars in a year that saw the release of The Acolyte and, more recently, SkeletonCrew and other enduring franchises like The Walking Dead and Doctor Who. The aforementioned Fallout made its television debut at #3 fresh off of breaking records and earning Emmy nominations galore with the Ella Purnell-led adaptation at Prime Video, while Paramount+'s Sonic the Hedgehog 's Knuckles made it in at #6 and Cyberpunk clocked in at #7, perhaps thanks to the confirmation of a new series based on Cyberpunk 2077. With the upcoming release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the blue blur also shot to #4 on the film chart, assuring that every major list featured at least one gaming franchise.

The MCU Reclaimed Its Crown Among Television and Film Franchises

Jockeying among the five remaining spots on the overall list was a mix of television, film, and anime titles, with Marvel joined by One Piece, Naruto, Game of Thrones, and Yu-Gi-Oh !. To no surprise, the MCU came in at the top of the movie franchise top ten after Deadpool & Wolverine dominated much of the conversation throughout the summer. Buzz surrounding upcoming releases like Thunderbolts*, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Avengers: Doomsday, and the fourth Spider-Man movie with Tom Holland also contributed to its ranking. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman's reference-packed sendoff of the Fox era of superhero films wasn't all the MCU had to offer in 2024 though, as the releases of Echo and especially the magically well-received Agatha All Along powered it to #2 on the television list as well, behind only Arcane.

Marvel's dominance of the film list finally dethroned Star Wars after two years of the juggernaut sci-fi franchise as the top dog. The rest of the film and television lists, meanwhile, are made up of franchises with new installments and evergreen legacy series. The Lord of the Rings placed on both rankings at fifth and third respectively with the release of The Rings of Power Season 2 earlier this year and The War of the Rohirrim coming next week. The MCU's superhero rival, the DC Extended Universe, also earned a film chart nod with the excitement around Superman and the rest of James Gunn and Peter Safran's plans, but not a television spot despite the launch of Creature Commandos. One of the sillier list debuts was Winnie the Pooh. The honey-loving bear barely made a surprise film franchise appearance at #10 powered by not just the official Disney properties, but the Twisted Childhood Universe and, specifically, the Blood and Honey films.