The Best of 2016—the Tylt series that mobilized fan armies

Published in

The Tylt

5 min readJan 24, 2017

BY DERON DALTON

Throughout 2016, the Tylt experimented with how communities engage in social conversations. And many times we exceeded our expectations of community outreach on opposing sides of an argument. We’ve been able to mobilize communities to share opinions and even engage in conversations with one another. But in addition to engaging opposing sides in direct conversation, we’ve mobilized fans who sometimes simply want to share their side. Enter the fan army!

In November, we set out to launch an ambitious series of debates, highlighting the best in pop culture and sports. The goal was simple — the Tylt produced content that specifically resonated with our pop-culture lovers and sports fanatics. We wanted to give fan armies a chance to show their love for and passion in a coveted “Best of 2016” series.

Throughout December, we faced off the best songs, albums, movies, TV shows, comic books, video games, sports teams, pro athletes and entertainers of 2016. The “Best of 2016” candidates were chosen by a combination of popularity, impact, acclaim, rankings and/or amount sold. But ultimately, we wanted you — our communities and beyond — to let us know who and what from 2016 won the year in each category.

For example — Beliebers don’t play! In our adult contemporary song category, Beliebers crushed the competition and widely voted for Justin Bieber, who had the biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit of 2016, “Love Yourself.”

And Beliebers are just one among many fan armies who voted on the “Best of 2016.” Music dominated the series with a total of 20 debates. 11 of the 20 polls were in the song categories, and eight in the albums categories. And in the final music poll, Drake beat Bey for music entertainer of 2016 in a tight race.

Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of how fan armies voted in 2016: