Fandom (website)
On the 18th of October 2004, at 23:50:49 UTC, a website named Wikicities launched under the leadership of Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley Starling. Wales envisioned a digital space where people from specific cities could gather to share local knowledge, mirroring his work on Wikipedia but for geographical communities rather than encyclopedic facts. The project quickly evolved into a broader platform for fan-created content after its name changed to Wikia in March 2006. By September 2006, the site hosted approximately 1,500 wikis across 48 languages, incorporating independent projects like LyricWiki and WoWWiki into its growing network. Gil Penchina described this early era as "the rest of the library and magazine rack" compared to the encyclopedia model of Wikipedia. In the month before the rebranding, the company secured US$4 million in venture capital from Bessemer Venture Partners and First Round Capital. Nine months later, Amazon.com invested $10 million in Series B funding, signaling strong investor confidence in the expanding wiki ecosystem.
In February 2018, former AOL CEO Jon Miller acquired Fandom with backing from private equity firm TPG Capital. This acquisition marked a shift toward aggressive expansion through purchasing major entertainment media outlets. That same year, Fandom bought Screen Junkies from Defy Media and acquired Curse Media, which included Gamepedia and various websites within the Curse Network such as D&D Beyond. On the 3rd of October 2022, the company purchased GameSpot, Metacritic, TV Guide, GameFAQs, Giant Bomb, Cord Cutters News, and Comic Vine from Red Ventures. These acquisitions transformed Fandom from a hosting platform for fan communities into a massive conglomerate controlling key gaming and pop culture databases. By February 2019, Perkins Miller took over as CEO, and the parent company fully changed its domain name to fandom.com. The transition involved migrating wikis that focused on serious topics to wikia.org while moving others to the new primary domain. In June 2021, Fandom began rolling out FandomDesktop, a redesigned theme intended to replace legacy skins like Oasis and Hydra once the rollout was complete.
Fandom utilizes a heavily modified version of the MediaWiki software based on version 1.39, adding custom extensions for social features like blogs, chat, badges, forums, and multimedia integration. In August 2016, the company announced a switch to a service-oriented architecture, removing many custom extensions previously used by specific wikis. On the 11th of March 2020, Fandom released the Unified Community Platform (UCP), built on MediaWiki 1.33, for all newly created wikis. The platform allows users to create content covering video games, movies, books, and TV series with greater detail than standard encyclopedias permit. Unlike Wikipedia's neutral point of view requirement, Fandom communities can adopt specific perspectives, though some maintain local policies for neutrality. Image policies are more lenient, allowing articles to include extensive illustrations from professional photographers or fan art. However, the personal choice to use the Monobook skin instead of the default custom skin was removed on the 25th of May 2018, citing GDPR compliance issues. The site ranks as the 50th most visited website globally as of October 2023, with traffic distribution showing 25.79% from the United States and 7.76% from Russia.
Fandom derives its income primarily through advertising and sold content, utilizing models that have drawn significant criticism from users and industry observers. In mid-2025, a report published by Emarketer noted the presence of malvertising within the platform where ads embedded in wiki pages could redirect to suspicious sites. By August 2024, Adalytics released a report indicating major brand advertisements appeared alongside obscene material including racial slurs and white supremacist content on several small wikis. The company employs AI systems supplemented by DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science to manage these placements, yet critics argue the system fails to filter malicious content effectively. In early 2025, Le Monde reported that Fandom was becoming a monopoly affecting information circulation online while employing tactics to undermine competition. Starting in November 2025, the company adjusted its advertising approach so logged-in users who are not actively editing may see advertisements while active editors receive little-to-no advertisement experience. This shift aims to balance revenue generation with user retention despite complaints about intrusive autoplay videos causing page refreshes on mobile devices.
In 2017, Fandom began incorporating autoplaying videos into different wikis about video game franchises such as RuneScape and Fallout without prior consultation of the editors responsible for maintenance. During the same period, most of the editorial team behind Yu-Gi-Oh Wiki decided to move to a new project called Yugipedia when Fandom forced autoplaying videos onto their pages. Editors cited that Fandom's video production team had plagiarized content from other fan-made resources to increase profits. By 2023, Fandom introduced AI Generated Content in the form of Quick Answers which contained grammatical mistakes and factual errors before being removed after public backlash. The editorial team behind the Hollow Knight Wiki explained they chose to migrate due to Fandom's attempts to introduce generative AI into articles causing misinformation. In May 2025, Fandom introduced brand safety guidelines to Giant Bomb which were criticized and mocked by the website staff in a podcast. Jeff Grubb clarified in several podcasts that Fandom would have removed videos where contributors mocked the new guidelines imposed by the company.
Fandom has been subject to several lawsuits in the State of California following data collection practices that violated the Video Privacy Protection Act. The website shared user information including IP addresses and viewing habits to third-party companies such as Meta without prior consent. Lawsuits regarding privacy violations against Fandom began in 2022 following reports that the company was selling sensitive information to external platforms. Later in 2023, a federal judge in California clarified that Fandom cannot evade lawsuits regarding data sharing filed by consumers. In December 2025, following a California court ruling, the company was forced to compensate approximately 860,000 people for damages caused by invasion of privacy and data leaks to third parties. The settlement included an estimated $1.2 million to remedy the damages caused by violation of consumers privacy rights. Additionally, the company had previously been sued in several district courts in California for copyright infringement regarding unauthorized use of images created from professional photographers on its website. These cases included lawsuits by photographer Linda Matlow for material from her professional catalog and film director Michael Grecco for promotional imagery taken for The X-Files.
Continue Browsing
Common questions
When did Fandom launch as Wikicities?
Fandom launched as Wikicities on the 18th of October 2004 under the leadership of Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley Starling. The project evolved into a broader platform for fan-created content after its name changed to Wikia in March 2006.
Who acquired Fandom in February 2018?
Former AOL CEO Jon Miller acquired Fandom with backing from private equity firm TPG Capital in February 2018. This acquisition marked a shift toward aggressive expansion through purchasing major entertainment media outlets like Screen Junkies and Curse Media.
What software does Fandom utilize for its wikis?
Fandom utilizes a heavily modified version of the MediaWiki software based on version 1.39, adding custom extensions for social features like blogs, chat, badges, forums, and multimedia integration. In August 2016, the company announced a switch to a service-oriented architecture removing many custom extensions previously used by specific wikis.
Why has Fandom faced criticism regarding advertising practices?
Fandom derives its income primarily through advertising and sold content, utilizing models that have drawn significant criticism from users and industry observers. Reports indicate malvertising within the platform where ads embedded in wiki pages could redirect to suspicious sites or appear alongside obscene material including racial slurs and white supremacist content.
When did Fandom settle privacy lawsuits involving data collection?
In December 2025 following a California court ruling, the company was forced to compensate approximately 860,000 people for damages caused by invasion of privacy and data leaks to third parties. The settlement included an estimated $1.2 million to remedy the damages caused by violation of consumers privacy rights.