User blog:MisterWoodhouse/State of Video 2020

Hey gang!

It has been just over a year since we introduced The Loop as our new video series going into the JW Player at the top of select wiki pages, in many cases replacing the Featured Video content from years past. As we continue to gather data and experiment with different video types, I wanted to give you a recap of the work we have done and what you can expect from us in 2021.

For those of you who are new, JW Player is a video unit which shows up at the top of an article page for logged out users (and logged in users who set their preferences as such) once per community visit and plays The Loop or Featured Video content. What is The Loop? It is a weekly, vertical-specific mini show produced by Fandom’s original content team to cover the latest developments within a particular vertical. From Marvel Cinematic Universe casting news to Cyberpunk 2077 reviews to interesting data trends about TV shows, The Loop gives you a quick briefing on what’s going on, relevant to wiki communities on the platform.

Breaking down the stats
Episodes of The Loop were viewed over 630 million times in 2020, with over 33 million views coming in the past month.

Featured Video content was viewed over 700 million times in 2020, with over 30 million views coming in the past month.

Featured Video content numbers are so high still partially because some top wikis still have relevant content from that program. One such wiki, Wookieepedia, had a phenomenal year between the final season of The Clone Wars and the smash hit success of The Mandalorian. Expect the Star Wars community to see even more growth with the MASSIVE slate of new content just announced by LucasFilm. Personally, I’m really hoping Kyle Katarn returns to canon and Chris Evans gets cast to play him.

But I digress… The Loop continues to gain ground on Featured Video because our rollout for The Loop ramped up over the past year.

Looking at the viewing data, the trends match overall site visits for 2020, a year which saw fundamental changes to internet consumption behavior because of the global public health crisis. This time of year is USUALLY our highest traffic season, but 2020 peaked significantly in April as most of the world entered public safety lockdowns. As such, the data collected makes conclusions hard to draw. We will continue to experiment with The Loop and its impact on viewing data in 2021.

The most popular episodes in 2020
The most popular episode of The Loop this year looked at DC properties “Gotham Knights” and “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.” It had 23.5 million views.



The second most episode of The Loop this year looked at new fighters coming to Super Smash Bros. It had 21.3 million views.



Other experiments
The Loop wasn’t the only video content we experimented with in 2020. Some of you may have also tuned in for new video series off platform, like Hey Fandom! and Fandom 5 Trivia.

Hey Fandom! is a crowd-sourced interview series in which fans like you get to ask questions of your favorite creators and stars. From Ben Schwartz (Parks & Rec, Sonic, and Space Force) and Janet Varney (Korra in The Legend of Korra) to Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead co-creator) and Nolan North (Destiny 2, Uncharted, and seemingly EVERYTHING else), we had a lot of fun connecting our users with the people who make their favorite TV shows, movies, anime, and video games. You can visit this page to check out some of the coolest moments from our Hey Fandom! events.

Fandom 5 Trivia is a chance to flex your knowledge of your favorite fandoms for cash prizes. Our team comes up with progressively tougher questions on a particular topic, like Pokemon, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Disney, etc., and contestants try to answer all 5 for a shot at the cash. As a trivia lover, it was a lot of fun to watch folks go for it, especially when they managed to get a really tough question right with a guess.

What’s next?
In 2021, we will continue to experiment with video and how it can compliment our wiki communities. Understanding how the viewing data compares to the odd patterns of 2020 is very important for determining the future of video on the platform. You might be getting The Loop on your wiki for the very first time next year and you might see The Loop explore a new content vertical...