FanSided Fandoms of the Year: What we were rooting for last month

FanSided’s Fandoms of the Year will be here in December to reflect back on what moved, excited and entertained us this year. But here’s a peek at what captured our attention in last month.

FanSided Fandoms of the Year is an authentic celebration of fan culture, bringing together the FanSided community of readers and writers to celebrate the teams, players, competitions, movies, experiences, actors, music, television shows, games and more that made us want to stand up and cheer in 2022.

Fandom is all about community, people sharing passion, joy, grief and triumph. In a world wracked by sickness, fear and uncertainty the things that connect us as humans have never been more important. This project is a way to celebrate and examine the things that bring us together, to recognize the transformative power of positivity and maybe even help people find something new to fall in love with.

The project is a curated list of things that moved, inspired, thrilled and entertained us this year, featuring 100 fandoms described, in-depth, by people who love them. This year, for the first time, the list will be unranked, putting all 100 fandoms on equal footing, highlighting how they are all worthy of celebration. However, we’ll also be highlighting 10 fandoms with superlative recognition in categories like “Most karmically-owed fandom” and “Most inspiring fandom of the year.” And, as in years past, we will be choosing one fandom as the FanSided Fandom of the Year.

As a lead-in to the final list, we’re releasing a monthly check-in highlighting five fandoms that were relevant or that we connected with that month. Here’s what we were rooting for last month.

What Fandoms of the Year were we rooting for last month?

How do I not nominate Big No. 99 here? As the Yankees crater, he’s still chasing Roger Maris’ franchise home run record and reached 50 blasts by the end of August. He’s been remarkable in a contract year, and his Yankees teammates have…not been. Anything that makes Hal Steinbrenner sweat is a good thing, too.

— Adam Weinrib, FanSided Content Director

After the Game of Thrones finale disappointed just about everyone back in 2019, people swore off the franchise. Well, House of the Dragon premiered on August 21 and saw nearly 10 million viewers tune in. This became the biggest series premiere in HBO history. So far, House of the Dragon has delivered and is on its way to becoming the best show of 2022. You just can’t beat these Targaryens.

— Natalie Zamora, FanSided Head of Entertainment Content

For the past few years, the Baltimore Orioles could be mostly understood as a collection of future assets, prospects and possible stars bound up in potential and hypothetical. This was supposed to be the year those hypotheticals began to become realities but even the most optimistic of Orioles fans didn’t really expect this. As of late August, the team is above 0.500 and has an outside chance of actually making the playoffs. The sky is still the limit for this team over the next few years but suddenly the floor is looking pretty good too.

— Ian Levy, FanSided Creative Editorial Director

The Rehearsal debuted this year and it was one of the strangest, most mystifying, and intriguing shows I’ve ever seen backdropped by stage performance comedy.

— Josh Wilson, FanSided Managing Newsdesk Editor

Special Olympics had an amazing year, holding their 5th US Special Olympic games. After a few years of isolation and canceled events because of Covid they were finally able to have the event and celebrate athletes from around the US. They also held their Unified Cup in Detroit, another spectacular event.

— Zachary Best, FanSided General Manager