Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” Paramount’s “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” HBO’s “The Last of Us” and Netflix’s “Arcane” are just the start of a new wave of movies and TV series based on popular video games and table-top gaming IP.
From “God of War” and “Warhammer 40,000” set up at Amazon Prime Video to “Twisted Metal” for Peacock, everyone wants a piece of gaming IP in the battle to gain new subscribers and reduce churn.
But instead of fighting for whatever is popular and hasn’t already been adapted, new data provided by fan-community platform and entertainment company Fandom suggests what titles streamers including Netflix, Amazon and HBO Max should be focusing on based on the gaming fanbases of their respective subscribers.
These insights are based on Fandom’s first-party platform, cross-visitation data pulled using its proprietary data platform FanDNA, and tracks Fandom’s top 10 gaming wikis for fans of each streaming platform.
Per Fandom’s findings, which are derived from behavioral data for Fandom’s users vs. a study among a sample asking about attitudes and self reported information:
● Apple TV+ viewers WAY over index for God of War. There’s a God of War series in the works already – but for Amazon Prime where it doesn’t register in the top ten.
● Streamers should consider Starcraft or Half-Life adaptations. These are both decades-old franchises with huge followings, stronger-than-average narratives, and the opportunity for great visual effects.
● Dragon Age and Elder Scrolls could be sleeper hits for a streamer. Similar to The Witcher and Wheel of Time.
● Final Fantasy, Horizon Zero Dawn, Assassin’s Creed, Fallout could be “serious” adaptations
● The Rainbow Six video games are based on Tom Clancy novels, which have long been a source for successful film & TV adaptations (Hunt for Red October, Jack Ryan.)
● Freddy Fazbear (from the Five Nights at Freddy’s game series) popped up for Hulu — this series is very popular with Gen Z and it’s been rumored WarnerMedia is working on a film adaptation already
● Some of these IPs were already films of varying degrees of success: Angry Birds, Doom, Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat
“We started thinking about how, right now, all of these streamers are trying to figure out what they can produce that’s going to be unique and differentiated,” Fandom CMO Stephanie Fried told Variety. “There’s been a real focus on continuing existing franchises because there’s this belief that you have a much bigger leg up. ‘Super Mario Bros.’ just came out and did huge numbers, likely due to the ability to lean on an IP that’s been part of people’s lives for a very long time.
“For a while, the way that this was happening was through comics, like Marvel and DC, and through books like ‘Harry Potter.’ And all of a sudden, gaming was the next place. There are so many games, different types of games. And we’ve seen all of the ones that have actually been developed into franchises on other screens that have been successful. And yet I feel like they’ve only tapped the surface there because comics and books have always been a little bit more connected, but now gaming, it’s going both ways, both developing from a gaming franchise into TV movies and vice versa.”
While several of the game titles that show up in these findings have already been adapted for screen — many by different platforms than the ones they align with best in the study — Fandom’s data suggests “it’s important for studios to consider what’s a good content fit for specific platforms/streaming services, whether it’s built from scratch, getting the rights to existing content or carving out a space to develop a different part of the franchise.”
See below for the Fandom’s data broken down by streamer. For example, Fandom found that visitors to the Peacock Wikis “are 37x more likely to engage with Angry Birds than other Fandom users; 29x more likely to engage with Sonic than other users; and so on.”
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Top Cross-Visitation for Peacock
Image Credit: Courtesy of Rovio Entertainment - Angry Birds 37x more likely
- Sonic 29x
- Just Dance 19x
- Mario 14x
- Everquest 12x
- Pokemon 9x
- Fallout 8x
- Dragon Ball 8x
- Minecraft 7x
- Elder Scrolls 6x
Per Fandom: “Though we see things like ‘Law and Order’ and ‘The Voice’ get decent amounts of [traction], the top Peacock Wikis are actually animation, driving a lot of young gaming IPs to be the most cross-visited. With some of Peacock’s top wikis being in the animated/kid-friendly category, this represents a potential opportunity for the streamer to focus on kid-friendly IPs as upcoming shows.”
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Top Cross-Visitation for Apple TV+
Image Credit: Sony / Amazon - God of War 282x
- Megaman 256x more likely
- Freddy Fazbear’s 159x more likely
- Magic the Gathering 72x more likely
- Persona 5 51x more likely
Per Fandom: “Sci-fi and fantasy are among the most represented genres for Apple TV+ including ‘For All Mankind,’ ‘See’ and ‘Foundation’ (and not surprising to see that also represented in cross-visited games). While Apple TV+ had the fewest results of any streaming service, the crossover it did have was huge — representing a really big opportunity for this particular streamer.”
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Top Cross-Visitation for Paramount+
Image Credit: Deca Games - Dragonvale 46x more likely
- The Forest 16x more likely
- Stalker 16x more likely
- Binding of Isaac: Rebirth 16x
- Rainbow Six 12x more likely
- Street Fighter 9x
- Raft 9x
- Dead Cells 8x
- Disco Elysium 7x
- Might and Magic 6x
Per Fandom: “On our site, Paramount trac is driven mostly by Nickelodeon content, which makes a lot of these first person shooter games all the more interesting. It’s an opportunity for P+ to look at first-person shooter IPs for potential crossover hits.”
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Top Cross-Visitation for Amazon Prime Video
Image Credit: Courtesy of HoYoverse/Ufotable - Creatures of Sonaria 212x
- Rainbow Six 14x
- Dragon Age 10x
- Doors Game (Roblox) 10x
- Twisted Wonderland 8x
- Call of Duty 6x
- Half Life 3x
- Merge Mansion 3x
- Genshin Impact 1.5x
- Plants Vs. Zombies 1.4x
Per Fandom: “Lots of variety on Amazon — which means they have many different genres of gaming they can lean into and are well positioned to take advantage of gaming IP crossovers. Creatures of Sonaria might come from something like Peanuts, but there are a few first person shooter games represented here, likely driven by more violent programming like ‘Jack Ryan,’ ‘The Boys’ and ‘Invincible.’”
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Top Cross-Visitation for HBO Max
Image Credit: Sony - White Wolf (roleplaying game company) 80x
- Castlevania 45x
- Starcraft 21x
- Pillars of Eternity 18x
- Horizon Forbidden West 17x
- Harvest Moon 8x
- The Last of Us — which happened! 7x
- Sims 7x
- Cookie Run Kingdom 7x
- Subnautica 6x
Per Fandom: “Not too surprising the channel that has ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘House of the Dragon’ would cross perfectly with a game called White Wolf. Lots of genre/fantasy represented by HBO Max. Narrative-driven games like White Wolf and Horizon are big opportunities for HBO Max to continue to capitalize on the gaming IP crossover.”
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Top Cross-Visitation for Disney+
Image Credit: Courtesy of Rockstar Games - Megaman 161x
- Sonic 25x
- Poppy Playtime 23x
- Dead Space 14x
- Kirby 7x
- Assassin’s Creed 7x
- Brawl Stars 5x
- Undertale 5x
- Grand Theft Auto 5x
- Red Dead Redemption 4x
Per Fandom: “Interestingly, some of the results defy expectations a bit — some horror, some first-person shooter, some combat. So while you may assume Disney’s targets would all be family-friendly IPs like Sonic, there’s actually a lot of adult content here which opens a new door of possibilities for Disney+.”
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Top Cross-Visitation for Netflix
Image Credit: Courtesy of Epic Games - Fortnite 32x
- Starcraft 31x
- Dragonvale 18x
- Mortal Kombat 16x
- God of War 14x
- Atomic Heart 8x
- Stalker 8x
- Phasmophobia 7x
- Diablo 7x
- Overwatch 4x
Per Fandom: “There is a gaming genre variety with Netflix — horror, shooter, action/adventure and battle royale — which opens the door for them to capitalize on some crossover IP hits. Netflix is also the home of ‘Vikings,’ ‘Vikings: Valhalla’ and ‘Record of Ragnarok’ so it’s not surprising fans would lean into ‘God of War’ [and] more Norse content.”
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Top Cross-Visitation for Hulu
Image Credit: Square Enix - Kingdom Hearts 56x
- Doom 13x
- Freddy Fazbear 9x
- Ace Attorney 8x
- Romance Club 8x
- Zelda 7x
- Kirby 7x
- Guilty Gear 6x
- Final Fantasy 6x
- Resident Evil 4x
Per Fandom: “Lots of sitcoms and light-hearted fare are driving Hulu trac on Fandom’s site, so it’s interesting to find Romance Club and Ace Attorney. ‘American Horror Story’ might drive horror games like Freddy Fazbear, too. And since 57{18875d16fb0f706a77d6d07e16021550e0abfa6771e72d372d5d32476b7d07ec} of fans say storyline & thematic elements of the game are key factors for them, procedurals like Ace Attorney could be a surprising target for Hulu.”
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