eBay Releases Data Showing the Most Popular Franchises of the Past Decade - Paste Magazine

With Comic-Con’s official preview night over, the convention proper is underway from today until Sunday. It’s during these days that all manner of stormtroopers, Klingons, mutants and Pokémon trainers walk the same halls, not as a show of superiority, but as a show of creativity and representation.

In commemoration of this year’s con, eBay, the one-stop shop for all vintage fan merch, has released a new list showing which fan franchises rank highest according to the websites’ sales data from the past 10 years.

At no surprise, Star Wars calmly Force-chokes the competition with a comfortable $3 million lead. The site reports that one Star Wars item is sold every 14 seconds, compared to every 37 seconds for Batman merch and every 75 seconds for Harry Potter.

While the recent resurgence in Pokémon fandom wouldn’t affect its current fourth-place spot given the decade measurement, it may soon claim Star Wars’ spot if its current velocity rate continues. Where Pokémon was previously selling one item every 28 seconds, that number increased by 57 percent to a dramatic one item every 12 seconds after the release of Pokemon GO two weeks ago. One has to wonder how many of these “items” are actually leveled up Pokemon GO accounts.

Curiously absent from eBay’s list is The Avengers, whose two blockbuster team films and separate standalone movies would seem to encourage fans to empty their wallets at the box office, rather than eBay’s online treasure trove.

eBay’s team also used the same sales data to measure the increased interest in certain fandoms in the last 12 months. TV appears to top that list, with USA’s Mr. Robot and AMC’s adaptation of Preacher leading the other 13 contenders by a fair margin.

Check out our list of this Comic-Con’s coolest panels here and keep an eye out for more coverage of the biggest fan event later in the week.

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