Fandom community members and staff meeting Fandom Party headliner Jason Derulo.
On October 18, 2004, Fandom was born – the beginning of what has become the world’s largest fan-generated entertainment platform. It’s been a heck of a ride that’s now headed into its third decade of being the companion to 350 million fans worldwide.
This summer, on July 25th we kicked off our anniversary celebration with our annual, highly-anticipated Fandom Party in San Diego. This is a yearly event, held unofficially during San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), that usually generates a lot of exciting buzz in San Diego, as it brings together fans, creators, and industry members in a celebration of fans and pop culture. This year, the theme “20 Years of Worldbuilding” was a tribute to the editors and fans like you who have come together over the years to build vibrant, passionate communities around the things they love.
A number of community members from our Fandom Stars program also attended the Fandom Party this year, and we’re going to tell you all about their experience. But why celebrate our anniversary? Let’s turn back the clock…
Fandom Foundations[]
Fandom (originally called Wikicities, later Wikia) was founded in 2004 by Jimmy Wales (yeah, the Wikipedia guy) and British web entrepreneur Angela Beesley Starling (who was also a key member of the Wikimedia Foundation). It was a new platform built on the same core technology that powered Wikipedia, with the goal of super serving the needs of an incredibly passionate set of users: fans.
Understandably, Wikipedia wasn’t meant for fully comprehensive deep dives into all aspects of the lore of any particular show, movie, or game, and a lot of wiki editors and fans wanted a place where they could learn more about their favorite characters, games, episodes, and more. The idea was simple: if Wikipedia is the encyclopedia, then Fandom is the rest of the library – a repository of information that could dive deeper and more comprehensively into different fictional universes. As Fandom grew, it was clear that fans are interested in many different aspects of their favorite topics and want to play, connect, create, shop, and celebrate. Over time, Fandom has added new services to its family of brands to help fans dive deeper into what they love: GameSpot and TV Guide to help navigate the expensive universe of entertainment and gaming, ScreenJunkies for fan conversations, Metacritic and Fanatical to find new favorites in TV and games, and more.
What started out as a small platform with 1,500 wiki articles now encompasses over 60 million wiki articles in over 80 languages on nearly 300,000 wikis – not to mention the posts, comments, reviews, and more that you can contribute to on Fandom, GameFAQs (our platform for user-generated game guides and walkthroughs), and more. As a general rule of thumb: if it exists, there’s a wiki for that. The platform has grown to become a place where you can discover new favorites, dive as deep as you want on the things you love, and engage with other fans and editors across virtually any gaming or entertainment property out there.
There’s so much to celebrate!
Fandom Party: The Celebration Begins[]
Of course, it wouldn’t be a celebration worthy of Fandom’s 20th anniversary without community members and Fandom Stars from some of our top gaming and entertainment wikis. At this year’s Fandom Party, "possibly the single-best experience" fans will find around San Diego during SDCC, we were joined by RinasaurusRex from The Last of Us Wiki, FrenchToast49 from Escape from Tarkov Wiki, AJHalliwell and Renegade54 from Memory Alpha, Emitewiki2 from Marvel Database, and Lenhi from Steven Universe Wiki.
We flew community members to San Diego for once-in-a-lifetime experiences, above and beyond the Fandom Party – more on their SDCC experience after this!
During the party, the community attendees enjoyed VIP early access before the party officially kicked off. They walked the Fandom gold carpet, where they were interviewed by Fandom and had their pictures taken by members of the press. Getting a chance to meet more Fandom staff and other party guests was one of the biggest highlights of the party – but perhaps the biggest moment of the night was a 45 minute unforgettable concert experience by party headliner and multi-platinum singer songwriter Jason Derulo, who helped kicked off Fandom’s 20th anniversary with a bang!
As a special exclusive, the community members were able to meet and get a picture with Jason after the party ended. Plus it was a party, which means there’s no shortage of all the free drinks and food you’d want in a night of celebration, connection, and shared passions!
But don’t just take my word for it. Hear from some of these community members themselves in interviews conducted right before the party kicked off!
Community SDCC Adventures[]
The Fandom Party may not be part of SDCC itself, but how could we pass up the opportunity to actually go to SDCC? I mean, it’s literally right across the street.
From Wednesday preview night all the way to when the doors closed on Sunday, the Fandom community attendees were treated to week-long SDCC access, where they could enjoy every moment they possibly could of the unique experience that is San Diego Comic-Con. From panels to endless cosplay, and a LOT of chances to buy merch along the way, SDCC gives fans like them an often once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to immerse themselves in one of the biggest pop culture celebrations on Earth. Plus, SDCC isn’t just about what goes on in the convention center – there are so many different brand activations around the city to explore. Thanks to our partners at Paramount+, our attendees were even able to get exclusive, skip-the-line access to “The Lodge” by Paramount+, giving them the chance to fully engage in the event without the wait times.
They also got behind the scenes access to Fandom’s press room, where our interview crew sits down with cast and crew members from some of the different movies and shows that are being promoted at SDCC. Particular highlights include when AJHalliwell and Renegade54 from Memory Alpha got to watch (and submit questions for) our interview with the cast and crew of Star Trek: Prodigy, including Star Trek legend Kate Mulgrew (Admiral Kathryn Janeway); and when Lenhi and Mandy (our Manager of Community Partnerships, Entertainment) got to meet their friendship-inspiring horror idol Jamie Lee Curtis and showed her their matching tattoos inspired by her work, which she took photos of on her own phone.
Nobody likes saying goodbye, but alas all good things must come to an end. We wrapped up the week with a special thank-you dinner at Dave & Buster’s, where the community members and Fandom Community team in attendance got to relax, celebrate their SDCC experience, and connect over games and good food. I for one enjoyed kicking everyone’s butt in racing games. There was also a Godzilla virtual reality experience that I still think about to this day. It was that good.
Testimonials[]
Fandom community members on the Fandom Party gold carpet.
It’s one thing for me to say how much fun SDCC is, but what about the attendees themselves? Let’s hear it straight from them!
AJHalliwell (Memory Alpha): “There’s Star Trek conventions, and then there’s THE San Diego Comic-Con. This is the gold standard of fandoms coming together to commune in what they love, see activations, and merch, and cosplay you won’t see anywhere else!! There’s nothing like the experience of seeing people enthusiastically and authentically embracing what they love, and feeling empowered to embrace and showcase what they love!”
Emitewiki 2 (Marvel Database): “SDCC with Fandom was such an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. I'll never be able to replicate it. Getting to spend time at a summit for nerd culture with a bunch of other super-nerds who spend their time editing wikis was both so much fun, and so validating for my hobby. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to go, get to participate in exclusive parties and invite-only events, and spend time with other editors. It was truly magical.”
Lenhi (Steven Universe Wiki): “I’m grateful to have been invited to attend SDCC by Fandom for a lot of different reasons—access to the convention itself and a super fun, exclusive party—but the best moment of all was somehow meeting Jamie Lee Curtis by total chance and being able to show her me and my bestie Mandy’s matching tattoos that are inspired by her, which now are immortalized in her phone gallery. It was a very unforgettable experience!”
RinasaurusRex (The Last of Us Wiki): “SDCC was such a fantastic experience! The panels were wonderful, I loved getting to hear some of my favorite game actors talk about their work. It was also just amazing to be out and about on the convention floor, seeing all the vendors, the beautiful cosplays, and just soaking in the energy of passionate fans. Though the highlight for me was probably getting to meet Erika Ishii and Anjali Bhimani (who both voice characters in a game I admin a wiki for) at the Fandom party. I promised myself I would be cool. I was not cool.”
The Party Continues – Literally[]
Our anniversary isn’t just about a party – it’s about celebrating the fans who make the Fandom platform what it is today, and those are fans like you – and like RinasaurusRex, FrenchToast49, AJHalliwell, Renegade54, Emitewiki2, and Lenhi. From VIP party access to unforgettable SDCC experiences, our community attendees had the time of their lives. And I can speak for the Fandom team when I say that being able to provide these kinds of experiences is one of the highlights of what we do, and we couldn’t be prouder to highlight their contributions in such a memorable way.
And we’re not done yet – because there’s another party! Tomorrow, on the actual 20th anniversary of Fandom, the Fandom Party heads from the west coast to the east coast for an unforgettable night in New York City. Held unofficially during New York Comic Con, our Fandom Party in New York features DJ and TikTok creator Xandra as our headliner, and we’re thrilled to host some familiar community faces.
The party starts tomorrow, and we’ll be back with another Staff Blog not long after covering what’s sure to be an amazing evening celebrating 20 Years of Worldbuilding with members of the Fandom community. Stay tuned!
I worked at Fandom from 2010 to 2025.
I'm a huge fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Marvel.
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