Game of Thrones vs Harry Potter: Battle of the Clicks
When you think of fantasy stories, there are probably two that come to mind first. Game of Thrones and the Harry Potter series have been the two most popular fantasy adaptations in a long time. But which is more popular? Considering Game of Thrones was coming to an end and the Fantastic Beasts series was starting around 2019, this is a great period to compare the two head to head. Both series are fairly complicated with aspects that can be hard to remember. By using Wikipedia page view data, we can view the amounts each site has had over time to attempt to compare the series.
In early 2019 Game of Thrones released its final season, and it’s been the most viewed series since. At the time, people were watching for the sensation even if they hadn’t viewed the series up to that point. As a result, you would expect people to look up characters, plot points, or even theories to catch up on the hype. As seen in the figure A, between the months of April and July, the Game of Thrones Wikipedia page peaked at around 700,000 views. This peak is massive when compared to the average of around 20,000 clicks before and after the season was released. This average applies to the from 2018 to 2021 except from when the season was released. The reception of the last season was very poor, so this may explain the return to normal after July. But these numbers themselves mean nothing. How do they compare to Harry Potter Wikipedia clicks?
When looking at the two figures side by side, the Harry Potter wikipedia page is much more “bumpy”. There were peaks in early 2018, mid 2019, and mid-late 2020. Each of these peaks mark the release of the Fantastic Beasts movies. While the Harry Potter page has peaks more often, they are far are always a lot less clicks. For the release of the first movie in the series, clicks barely got over 140,000. For the other movies in the series, the pages got even less clicks. This may be explained because the Fantastic Beasts series is only a prequel to Harry Potter and not a direct sequel involving the same main characters. News surrounding JK Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, and, Fantastic Beasts started coming out around this time, which may have had an effect of views as well. This would also explain the random bumps popularity in between the peaks. News about an upcoming movie would get people to research the older ones.
When comparing the two head to head, the Game of Thrones Wikipedia page is far more popular than the Harry Potter one. While this plays just a small factor in overall popularity, it helps determine trends or anomalies. In this case, it appears the Game of Thrones peak was an anomaly due to it being the last season. The average clicks on the Game of Thrones Wikipedia was also higher, likely due to being a newer adaptation. The Harry Potter movies ended in 2011, and while they have maintained popularity, it appears to have been overtaken by Game of Thrones. Despite this, the Harry Potter series’ popularity comes from more than just the movies. There are books, a play, and even an amusement park. While the popularity of the Harry Potter Wikipedia page may be low, there are plenty of other sources for information that the Game of Thrones community just doesn’t have access to. Wikipedia is great for getting quick, general knowledge but Harry Potter has established places for this. Overall, based on Wikipedia click, Game of Thrones is a much more clicked on site when compared to the Harry Potter one.
In the future, looking at views on the House of the Dragon Wikipedia page, and comparing it directly to one of the Fantastic Beats movies may be interesting. Another interesting take would be to compare House of the Dragon with other HBO shows that have come out recently. This a similar take on comparing the prequel of one series to the original series/adaptations that have come out since. It would also be more fitting, as comparing two tv shows can be shown in more tangible ways than the popularity of two epic fantasy stories.
