Send a raven: Two “Game of Thrones”-centric subreddits landed at the top of Reddit’s TV communities this year and the one that took the Iron Throne (or at least what’s left of it) is actually the board known for refusing to bend the knee to the now-ended HBO series.
According to Reddit’s 2019 Year in Review report, which was released Wednesday, the “Freefolk” subreddit is the most popular of the platform’s TV communities, with the “Game of Thrones” subreddit coming in at No. 2 for the year.
The Freefolk community is well known for, among other things, openly criticizing “Game of Thrones” creators Dan Weiss and David Benioff and posting/discussing leaks, whereas the straight “GoT” subreddit is usually the show’s biggest cheerleader and not as spoiler friendly. Freefolk is also known for raising more than $130,000 for Emilia Clarke’s SameYou charity.
The rest of Reddit’s Top 10 TV-focused pages include, in order, “The Bachelor,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “Big Brother,” “90 Day Fiance,” “Teen Mom OG”/”Teen Mom 2,” Dunder Mifflin (“The Office” subreddit), “Survivor” and Bravo’s “Real Housewives” franchise.
As you can see, reality TV had a big year on Reddit, with seven of those 10 slots belonging to unscripted programming.
While the site ranked its 2018 year-in-review report by unique views, this year’s list is calculated based on “activity” (which includes posts and comments) through the end of October. A representative for Reddit tells TheWrap that the two lists are still comparable in terms of ranking the popularity of TV communities year-over-year.
Fun fact: The Freefolk subreddit, the king of this year’s TV communities, didn’t even crack the Top 10 last year when looking at unique views.
See below for additional findings from Reddit’s report.
*There has been a 27% increase in year-over-year subscribers in Reddit’s Top 50 entertainment communities.
*The top franchises of the year based on community activity are, in order, “Game of Thrones,” Marvel, “Star Wars,” “Star Trek” and DC Cinematic.
*Here’s the year-over-year subscriber growth for Reddit’s Top 10 television communities:
1) r/freefolk – 164% YoY subscriber growth
2) r/gameofthrones – 46% subscriber growth
3) r/thebachelor – 96% YoY subscriber growth
4) r/rupaulsdragrace – 36% YoY subscriber growth
5) r/bigbrother – 29% YoY subscriber growth
6) r/90dayfiance – 119% YoY subscriber growth
7) r/teenmomogandteenmom2 – 68% YoY subscriber growth
8) r/dundermifflin – 42% YoY subscriber growth
9) r/survivor – 35% YoY subscriber growth
10) r/bravorealhousewives – 68% YoY subscriber growth