Although I can’t say I’ve watched every Star Trek show or movie over the last 57 years of the franchise, I’m close. I’m a dedicated fan of The Next Generation, and I think Strange New Worlds is a strong contender for second place (including this fall’s new season) – I’m forever grateful to the admins on Memory Alpha. I’m also a big fantasy nerd, so kudos to Baldur’s Gate III for winning Game of the Year at The Game Awards this year – and thanks to the Forgotten Realms wiki editors for covering the game.
It was a strong year for gaming releases overall, including Resident Evil 4, Legends of Zelda, Final Fantasy 16 and Starfield. This helped drive a record year for fans buying games, including on Fanatical. On the TV front, we saw The Last of Us and the third seasons of The Mandalorian and The Witcher. These strong franchise performances help yield engagement approaching the height of COVID lockdown on Fandom, showing fans’ interest in entertainment remained strong even through an actors’ and writers’ strike in Hollywood. though we might have had an even bigger year had these strikes not had a chilling effect on releases in the second half of the year.
The entertainment strikes combined with a softer advertising market made for a challenging economic year in entertainment, and Fandom was not spared. We refocused how our business operates in a number of ways, including with the ad experience. We experimented with a lot and learned a lot – these tests helped our business get through a challenging 2023 while setting us up for an improved ad experience in years to come. These headwinds didn’t hinder our efforts to build engagement across our platforms, however. We continued to focus on pushing out powerful editor tools, like Mobile CSS, report notifications, and post histories. We invested on several new fronts, from an upgraded new platform for MetaCritic to beginning tests using generative AI to improve user experiences. We also adjusted our platform design to encourage new editors to join – and saw registrations return to pre-pandemic levels. We also took steps to ease the ad load for editors, especially those on gaming wikis
2024 is poised to be another year for growth. We’ll be improving the look-and-feel of the platform, with improvements to navigation and content organization (with a focus on NOT interfering with editor content). We’ll also be developing tools that use editor-created content to complement it with structured, data-driven features, which we began teasing at Community Connect in April, such as AI-driven suggestions (‘add widget’) and drag-and-drop/WYSIWYG design elements that both improve the site experience and ensure proper tagging. Finally, we’ll be developing new ways to use insights to make our advertising more effective, so users will see more relevant ads (not just more ads). We’ll also be making material improvements to Fanatical to help fans find the games they want at the best price after a record year in 2023, and growing GameSpot, MetaCritic, GiantBomb, and TVGuide with even better content editorial and features.
I couldn’t be more excited about what lies ahead for Fandom, and I’m grateful for your continued use of the platform (as I selfishly use it every day!). I wish you an excellent holiday and a happy new year.
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