Reports Critical Developments

Entertainment fandom Monetise fandom, not attention

Mark Mulligan
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The 20,000 Foot View:  In the attention economy, entertainment consumption is intertwined and competition straddles formats and genres. The same applies to fandom. Entertainment fans are fans of not just multiple subgenres within one entertainment category, but instead across multiple entertainment formats. These fandom overlaps are crucial to building a full understanding of entertainment audiences, how to target them and for identifying partner strategy.

Key insights

  • All three            digital entertainment currencies are under            money (maturing markets), data (privacy            attention (the coming ‘attention recession’)
  • Fandom is            next digital currency, but monetisation            unevenly distributed
  • Fandom follows            relatively similar pattern across all            categories with a few large            and then a long tail            niches
  • Video has            largest fan bases, with            of            fans of action and            comedy.            has the other two biggest            bases (pop,            rock           
  • The top            subgenres are action            and puzzle            less the video’s fourth largest            base, drama           
  • Sports has            higher first placed fan base            games (American football,            but a            distant second place (soccer,           
  • Although it            shaped by them, fandom often            the normal socio-economic and demographic            that typically shape entertainment behaviour
  • Metal fans            over index for fandom of            action and thriller video subgenres,            well as for WWE and            sports
  • Country and            fans both over-index most for            fans of golf
  • Sandbox games            over-index most for niche games            sports
  • Games has            second-highest average fan income (AFI)                       but the highest share            derived            from fandom 
  • Music has            second lowest AFI            while video            the lowest share from fandom                      

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Bandcamp, Big Hit Entertainment, Discord, Tencent Music Entertainment, Twitch, Universal Music, VenewLive, Weverse