Fandom Acquires TV Guide, Gamespot, Metacritic, Other Publications

San Francisco-based Fandom beefed up its platform for ardent followers of a vast number of obsessions, acquiring seven fan-oriented publications – including such prominent brands as Gamespot, TV Guide, and Metacritic – from Red Ventures for an undisclosed amount.

Fandom already claimed 300 million monthly active users visiting more than 250,000 of its Wiki communities and 40 million pages of content. The new publications will add another 46 million MAUs in sectors such as video games, film, TV and streamed entertainment, comics and music. Other publications involved in the deal include GameFAQs, Giant Bomb, Cord Cutters News, and Comic Vine.

Fandom said the acquisition will expand its wide-ranging options for ad partners such as game publishers, studios and streaming services trying to reach the right audiences interested in their products, while also beefing up data and insights for Fandom’s data platform, called FanDNA.

With marketers’ rapid shift away from third-party data since AppleAAPL
largely blocked cookies on its iOS platform, achieving greater scale (and thus more first-party data) has become important for publishers and brands trying to efficiently target just the right audiences.

Fandom CEO Perkins Miller said the deal “will expand our business capabilities and provide immersive content for our partners, advertisers and fans. The trusted insights, ratings and content they provide will make us a one-stop shop for fans across their entertainment and gaming journey. In addition to creating exceptional fan experiences, these platforms will add to our FanDNA data offering, giving us sentiment and intent signals that will help improve the consumer experience as well as make our commerce and advertising businesses more impactful.”

Fandom has acquired a number of entertainment- and game-focused sites over the years, including ScreenJunkies in 2018, Curse Media in 2019, and game e-commerce site Fanatical in 2021.

Red Ventures Chief Strategy Officer Christina Miller said her company “continues to focus on unlocking the next phase of growth and evolution of its strong stable of decision-making brands.”

Red Ventures still owns online publications such as the pioneering tech site CNET, the travel sites Lonely Planet and The Points Guy, education-rating service BestColleges and others.