Comic-Con 2016: eBay Reveals The Top 15 Biggest ‘Fandoms’ Of The Last 10 Years
In celebration of Comic-Con 2016, eBay has announced the top 15 biggest “fandoms” of the last ten years. While not a scientific study, eBay does have an impressive way of measuring which character or franchise fans are geeking out over.
“Thanks to eBay’s vast search data, we’re able to not only find out what people are looking for, but also what they’re purchasing,” says Melissa Ojeda. “So while you’ll see no shortage of Stormtroopers at this year’s Comic-Con, there’s a host of new superheroes demanding your attention.”
Essentially, eBay examined the sales data from 2006 to 2016 to figure out which franchise reigned supreme. The company also factored the franchises represented at this year’s Comic-Con event to see how they rank as well.
Batman takes on Superman at Comic-Con — and it’s adorable! https://t.co/KjHNnJ1n4T pic.twitter.com/drqdLHcNFG
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) July 22, 2016
Comic books are the bread and butter of Comic-Con, so it no surprise that Superman and Batman-themed items were among the top purchased products, but the discrepancy between the two franchises might. Even with this year’s Batman v Superman movie, Batman-themed products outsold Superman by a wide margin. In the last ten years, eBay has sold over $216,000,000 worth of the caped crusader’s merchandise compared to just a little over $96,000,000 sales of Superman goods. But eBay has also noticed something else. Searches for more non-traditional comic book characters like Deadpool and Preacher are on the rise.
“With the rise in popularity for these superheroes, the question on everyone’s mind is: Are Batman and Superman losing their luster, or is the recent search trend just a temporary fad?” asks Ojeda.
The number one most popular franchise sold on eBay belongs to Star Wars selling a whopping $593,765,974 worth of product in the last ten years. In fact, eBay estimates that a Star Wars product is sold every 14 seconds on the website.
So, here are the results of the biggest fandoms of the past decade:
- #1 Star Wars ($593,765,974)
- #2 Batman ($216,670,864)
- #3 Transformers ($178,227,137)
- #4 Pokemon ($173,476,395)
- #5 Star Trek ($112,305,369)
- #6 Superman ($96,015,809)
- #7 Harry Potter ($84,791,533)
- #8 The Legend of Zelda ($83,046,559)
- #9 The Walking Dead ($54,635,144)
- #10 The Lord of the Rings ($41,323,469)
- #11 Naruto ($23,471,413)
- #12 Game of Thrones ($22,115,854)
- #13 Doctor Who ($21,209,540)
- #14 X-Men ($11,947,018)
- #15 South Park ($8,784,974)
As for this year, anything can happen. Obviously Pokémon has become more popular in the last couple of weeks with the release of the Pokémon GO app. According to eBay, the “pocket monsters” have been searched on the site more than 444,000 times making it the number one trending item on the website on July 18 of this year. The critters have sold every 12 seconds which is a 57 percent increase.
O Stone Calls Pokemon Go a ‘New Level of Invasion’ at Comic-Con ‘Snowden’ Panel https://t.co/CoXWPbFzP6 via @variety
— Brian Padian (@brian_padian) July 22, 2016
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So, what will be big at Comic-Con 2016? Here is a list of this year’s top performing franchise sells in the last 12 months.
- Mr. Robot is up 414 percent
- Preacher is up 288 percent
- Suicide Squad is up 160 percent
- Deadpool is up 155 percent
- Game of Thrones is up 86 percent
- Captain America is up 70 percent
- Superman is up 62 percent
- X-Men is up 48 percent
- Transformers is up 30 percent
- Batman is up 26 percent
- Star Wars is up 25 percent
- Pokémon is up 18 percent
- Star Trek is up 17.6 percent
- Dr. Strange is up 16.4 percent
- Harry Potter is up 16.3 percent
Though Superman may not win the prize for most popular, he certainly ranks high as being most profitable. A 1938 Superman comic book sold for $3.2 million on eBay.
[Photo by Matt Cowan/Getty Images]
