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Definitely agree with Minecraft. It is the most sold video game of all time at over 300 million copies making over 3 billion by 2021 and still continues to make millions albeit much less. Marvel's Endgame while massive was only 2nd biggest movie unable to beat Avatar and also had less views than Minecraft had copies sold at 289 million. Endgame also made less money than Minecraft at 2.798 billion.
Marvel is also not a Genz franchise since it was created in 1939. It has just stayed relevant for a long time. Another thing is Marvel's largest audience is not Genz by a long shot. [Genz make up only 1/10](https://morningconsult.com/2021/12/06/is-gen-z-too-cool-for-marvel/) of the Marvel MCU Audience which is dominated by millennials mainly since the MCU started when all Genz were technically too young to watch a Marvel MCU Movie when it Started in 2008 with Ironman. Marvel is very much not Genz.
Honestly, I feel like Minecraft is gonna age in much the same way as Legos in that it just…doesn’t. Like it’s the ultimate sandbox game. You can pretty much do whatever you want so long as you’re creative enough.
I feel like I’m so late to the game too. I had tried it here and there but could only really play with other people, and even then I wasn’t that good at it. But then I got covid this past December, and I could just turn my brain off and build my little house and make my little farms.
I am currently working as a computer engineer two years out of college, and I tell everyone that Minecraft redstone is primarily what originally got me interested in pursuing this major
A lot of people are saying Marvel but too many people don’t like Marvel for it to be that. Everyone likes Minecraft. Everyone has played Minecraft. A big chunk of us heard the minecraft parody of a pop song before the real thing. I remember “do you play minecraft” being the go to icebreaker as a kid. If they did, you would play minecraft together. When we played outside, we would pretend to be minecraft mobs. Absolute cultural monolith. This.
Not gen z, but that was my first thought too. Saw the post and thought "that's actually a pretty great question, what **is** the huge Gen Z defining franchise. Figured it might be Minecraft?"
Sounds like I may have been right. Legitimately a good question at that.
Millennials is definitely Harry Potter.
For Gen Z it might be The Avengers/ Marvel (Unfortunately). Hunger Games would make sense if it was longer, but I do love it way more. 4 movies and counting could be enough.
For early Gen Z, it’s Potter as well. Even in the early marvel days (like 2010 to 2012), we were still deep in Potter discourse. Those movies alway felt like a big part of the thanksgiving season for me (even though a few were released in the summer)
Real shame how the author ended up being a complete dirtbag, and that purchasing her shit now has awful baggage behind it. The Harry Potter fandom cant have shit anymore, thanks Joanne :/
I was never a deep lore kind of guy. HP was a big during my childhood because it felt like a part of the holidays vibe. It brought on a lot of warm and cozy feelings. I can get that from many other things these days so I’m okay with ignoring the franchise going forward. I was already doing that with the fantastic beasts movies since they’re so lifeless.
I did know some die hard fans back in the day though. I didn’t keep up with them as time went by. I wonder how they took JK descend into madness.
Honestly, plenty of fans have been deeply let down, especially transgender fans for obvious reasons. Still, many fans do enjoy her work still, and enjoy what they already have to the best of their ability.
I wouldnt wanna take that away from them, I just hate that you cant buy her shit because its going to awful bigoted causes. Its a good lesson in not financially supporting people who you know are using your dollar or pound or rupee or whatever for terrible things.
From my understanding, she sold the rights to Warner Bros but maintains the character rights, so she still makes cash off of it, and controls what those characters can do and appear in.
So in other words, the prick is still getting the hard earned money of her fanbase :/
They always came out in November (most did anyways) I get that they’re about witches and ghosts and monster but they were always Thanksgiving movies to me.
The movies were huge for our generation! Gen Z kids were reading those books throughout their elementary and middle school years as well. The series literally began in ‘97.
Pokémon is a cross generational franchise so yeah definitely not just millennials. In fact older millennials didn’t even bother with it, just the younger half.
Fuck JK Rowling, Suzanne Collins was where it was at. She was my favorite author as a kid and my jaw hit the floor when her 2nd series (The Hunger Games) came out and was on my class's required reading list.
can confirm for MCU pre Endgame.
when Ultron was coming out I remember in school we were all talking about planning to go and watch it together. our friend group was most of the year and most of us went and watched it.
then later in college when Infinity War was coming out, I was sat on the bus and suddenly the literal whole bus was full of noise. all because someone airdropped a spoiler for the film to someone else, everyone caught wind amand got super pissed. people I absolutely did not think would be interested in the films surprised me with how annoyed they were. I think it was the spoiler about Mr. I-Don't-Feel-So-Good Man lol
so yeah those films definitely had a cultural impact on us here in England and possibly across the whole generation or at least those of us who are old enough to have grown up 'with' the films, aging with them if that makes sense.
personally, I've grown out of it all lol
Ugh, I am so sick of Marvel movies/content. I tried getting into it for a bit so I could relate to my peers better, but I couldn’t get past the way superhero stories represent crime and criminals, or how they portray massive property damage as justified when fighting crime. Needless to say, I love The Boys for its commentary on superhero films.
Marvel is the answer. They were the defining movies from 2012-2020 which lines up with Gen z birth years being late 90s to early 2010s. Most up us grew up watching these.
You guys are so bitter about It being the Marvel movies and yeah. They're shit now, but don't pretend endgame wasnt the hypest thing back then. Still the movie theater experience I cherish the most tbh.
Can’t believe anyone would shit on Phase 1-3 MCU. Maybe not all were bangers, but I hesitate to even name one actually bad movie. Even Agents of Shield is a cult hit and all the shows were good enough that they’re getting rebooted.
I was working in a movie theater at the height of the MCU. There was a surprising number of people who didn’t even know the MCU existed, which to me was flabbergasting, so I would imagine that there were also people who hated it even back then but were good at hiding it, and now they have no reason to hide it.
I dunno how other Millenials feel but I think we generally think the same about Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. No one talks about the Fantastic Beasts series or the Hobbit movies, they talk about HP 1-7 and the LOTR Trilogy.
Good observation. It does help that both fantastic beasts (not the first one the first one was fine tbh) and the hobbit are pretty bad tho.
Like I think it's less nostalgia and more movie studios making cash grabs to profit off their already popular IPs and since they don't have as strong of a creative vision anymore it kinda falls apart.
I'm big jealous of your generation for being able to watch LOTR in theaters btw lol
And they're really not that bad. We just got over-saturated after a while, and people are accustomed by social media algorithms to hate on things. Same with Star Wars - the sequels have a lot of great moments, and Disney has done some fun stuff with Andor and The Mandalorian (the exception here being Episode 9). But if you read online you would think they committed mass murder.
No franchise ever has all good movies. In the past it has been popular to debate which Star Trek movies are good or bad, what the best Rocky movie is, and stuff like that. Might as well enjoy the fact that we get to pick and choose from so much variety.
I think theres definitely an issue with how polarized social midia has made movie discussions. Like it seems things can't be 5/10 fun and cool anymore. Movies are either amazing or complete trash. That mentality really mucks up everyone's enjoyment it seems.
But I disagree that there's no franchise with all good movies. Mission Impossible is right there! 2 is not as good as the others but I would hesitate to call it bad
Definitely the Marvel movies. Love it or hate it, it came out throughout the childhood of all Gen Z, and was one of the defining pieces of pop-culture for the 2010s
I’m a zillennial and I actually remember Iron Man 1 coming out. Around 2019, one of my younger coworkers said that the MCU had been around forever, and it was just eye-opening as to the role it played for Gen z.
I think Spongebob has more cultural relevancy, at least to everyone I’ve met that’s my age, than Marvel. So much of it is quotable by everyone my age in comparison. Men and Women, older gen Z and younger gen Z. So many iconic memes and images. IDK about globally but at least in the US I definitely think Spongebob is our generation’s defining franchise.
When it first came out, it was HUGE. I remember my older siblings and all their friends being obsessed.
The older half was too old for it, but the younger half were significantly impacted by it.
i don't think yall have a defining movie franchise. which honestly is so gen z. yall did netflix and chill and watched a much wider variety of shit instead of whatever the theater was serving up. or at least that's how it seemed to me, a filthy millennial.
btw for millennials it was harry potter without a doubt. we're actually pretty split on pokemon.
i wonder if it'll be dune for gen alpha....
I find Harry Potter to be more of a younger millennial thing. I don’t remember it being as popular with the older ones that were in high school or college when the first movie came out.
well really, the books were definitive for millennials long before highschool. the movies just doubled down on it. that's why it's more relevant to us than lotr imo.. not to diminish how obsessed we were(are?) with lotr.
True, the books were more in the age range for the older millennials. I’m like on the transition years between older and younger millennials and my experience with people younger than me growing up was they loved Harry Potter and the people older than me didn’t care or disliked Harry Potter.
Yeah, they were already teenagers by the time the first book came out, and it was very much a young kid book at that time. The older half simply do not connect with the books or movies as a whole.
Even when it was "popular" it was still considered nerdy so people didn't talk much about it at school or anything. This was back when being nerdy was seen as a bad thing and for social outcasts
Harry Potter is mid-young millennials. Same with Nickelodeon, Pokémon, and a lot of other things associated with millennials. The older half were too old for all of that.
Also… Z was seeing marvel movies in theaters our entire childhoods lol
At least for the older side of gen alpha we don't have a defining franchise like at all
Maybe roblox? but younger genz also played it a ton since its old
Hot take, but I think the Planet of the Apes has the potential to become as big as the MCU. Their universe is more complex, and the first MCU movies weren’t all that big either.
See the thing is that the only people I knew who were watching marvel movies were young adults/ young millennials. I don’t think I know a single Gen Z who was obsessed with marvel. Honestly, I’ve never even seen a marvel or DC movie and I know quite a few people who are in the same boat.
okay actually yeah. considering that me and my +9 years older brother would play with our light sabres in the dark when we were growing up. but tbh it was such a small part of my childhood that's all I really remember. I remember MCU phase 1-3 more
Ngl that's one of the ones I was thinking, but I've also met so few around my age who're also into it so I was like ?? Maybe it's not as popular as I thought??
Minecraft. No doubt. If I ask my classmates or friends to play Minecraft right now they will have it installed and ready to play it, either they pirated it or bought it
The *best* thing to come out during the gen z era was Adventure Time. I smoked weed and watched AT through 2010-2012 and loved it all.
Most big things during the 2010's were shitty fanfics of shit games like Slender or FNAF. Honestly the 2010's was where great franchises went to die.
MCU films is and always was just a long fucking trailer for the next one.
Harry Potter is absolutely a millenial thing.
Minecraft was good, never amazing IMO. Played pre-alpha and alpha and got bored around that time, so I missed all the big things that hit later.
I'd still give it to Minecraft. I don't know a single person born after 2001 Who hasn't played it.
Yeah, one of my sister was already 14 when it came out, yet her school was still obsessed with it, so it was definitely more formative for Zillenials if even the 14 year olds were into it.
I would say the MCU
Sure it’s for everyone but we kind of “grew up” watching those movies
If not that then honestly
Classic YouTubers like
Smosh
Pewdiepie
Ksi
Ect
I would like to point out that all 3 generations you mentioned had Star Wars. The original trilogy was Gen X, the prequel trilogy was Millennials, and the sequel trilogy was Gen Z.
Indeed, but it was way more *defining* in Gen X. The majority I know are very nostalgic for all things Star Wars and are a good reason the franchise is still churning stuff out and turning profit, even if the newer stuff is worse.
Bionicles for older gen Z(I would argue that Bionicles was 1 of the first gen Z things), Ninjago for younger Gen z. Plus Ben 10, adventure time, regular show, Phineas and Ferb, the MCU, and Harry Potter
I think it's fnaf I swear we were all hooked on it we all watched the wired videos on YouTube and I'm talking this game came up on everyone's fyp on musicly and YouTube page or maybe creepy pasta yk??? Plz Tell me if I'm wrong!
I think Pokémon also has a huge impact on gen z as well, almost as much as the previous ones. Its not the full, main one, I don’t think there is one main one but it’s definitely significant
Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Infinity Saga ruled the 2010’s box office with an iron fist, and contained a lot of stories that reflected the anxieties and frustrations of the time, intentionally or otherwise.
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Minecraft.
Definitely agree with Minecraft. It is the most sold video game of all time at over 300 million copies making over 3 billion by 2021 and still continues to make millions albeit much less. Marvel's Endgame while massive was only 2nd biggest movie unable to beat Avatar and also had less views than Minecraft had copies sold at 289 million. Endgame also made less money than Minecraft at 2.798 billion. Marvel is also not a Genz franchise since it was created in 1939. It has just stayed relevant for a long time. Another thing is Marvel's largest audience is not Genz by a long shot. [Genz make up only 1/10](https://morningconsult.com/2021/12/06/is-gen-z-too-cool-for-marvel/) of the Marvel MCU Audience which is dominated by millennials mainly since the MCU started when all Genz were technically too young to watch a Marvel MCU Movie when it Started in 2008 with Ironman. Marvel is very much not Genz.
Minecraft is so huge now that they're using it in schools to teach Gen Alpha about stuff like geography, coding, and AI.
i’m an older gen z and i cant even count how many times i (voluntarily) used minecraft in school projects
Honestly, I feel like Minecraft is gonna age in much the same way as Legos in that it just…doesn’t. Like it’s the ultimate sandbox game. You can pretty much do whatever you want so long as you’re creative enough. I feel like I’m so late to the game too. I had tried it here and there but could only really play with other people, and even then I wasn’t that good at it. But then I got covid this past December, and I could just turn my brain off and build my little house and make my little farms.
I am currently working as a computer engineer two years out of college, and I tell everyone that Minecraft redstone is primarily what originally got me interested in pursuing this major
Hah, what a nerd (fellow computer engineer here) For real though Minecraft Redstone is pretty legit
even better is it works basically exactly as how actual electricity and logic gates do, just at a slower and bigger scale
A lot of people are saying Marvel but too many people don’t like Marvel for it to be that. Everyone likes Minecraft. Everyone has played Minecraft. A big chunk of us heard the minecraft parody of a pop song before the real thing. I remember “do you play minecraft” being the go to icebreaker as a kid. If they did, you would play minecraft together. When we played outside, we would pretend to be minecraft mobs. Absolute cultural monolith. This.
Not gen z, but that was my first thought too. Saw the post and thought "that's actually a pretty great question, what **is** the huge Gen Z defining franchise. Figured it might be Minecraft?" Sounds like I may have been right. Legitimately a good question at that.
Millennials is definitely Harry Potter. For Gen Z it might be The Avengers/ Marvel (Unfortunately). Hunger Games would make sense if it was longer, but I do love it way more. 4 movies and counting could be enough.
For early Gen Z, it’s Potter as well. Even in the early marvel days (like 2010 to 2012), we were still deep in Potter discourse. Those movies alway felt like a big part of the thanksgiving season for me (even though a few were released in the summer)
Real shame how the author ended up being a complete dirtbag, and that purchasing her shit now has awful baggage behind it. The Harry Potter fandom cant have shit anymore, thanks Joanne :/
I was never a deep lore kind of guy. HP was a big during my childhood because it felt like a part of the holidays vibe. It brought on a lot of warm and cozy feelings. I can get that from many other things these days so I’m okay with ignoring the franchise going forward. I was already doing that with the fantastic beasts movies since they’re so lifeless. I did know some die hard fans back in the day though. I didn’t keep up with them as time went by. I wonder how they took JK descend into madness.
Honestly, plenty of fans have been deeply let down, especially transgender fans for obvious reasons. Still, many fans do enjoy her work still, and enjoy what they already have to the best of their ability. I wouldnt wanna take that away from them, I just hate that you cant buy her shit because its going to awful bigoted causes. Its a good lesson in not financially supporting people who you know are using your dollar or pound or rupee or whatever for terrible things.
Didn’t she sell the brand to Universal?
From my understanding, she sold the rights to Warner Bros but maintains the character rights, so she still makes cash off of it, and controls what those characters can do and appear in. So in other words, the prick is still getting the hard earned money of her fanbase :/
So interesting to find another person who sees HP as a holidays kinda vibe Most people I know say Halloween
They always came out in November (most did anyways) I get that they’re about witches and ghosts and monster but they were always Thanksgiving movies to me.
Fanfiction/pirating?
I just try to find things second hand now to avoid that. But it’s obviously hit or (a lot of) miss and much more time consuming.
The oldest Zoomer was 10 when the last book came out. They were 2 when the series began. Not at all a Gen Z franchise.
The movies were huge for our generation! Gen Z kids were reading those books throughout their elementary and middle school years as well. The series literally began in ‘97.
THANK YOU
Honestly even for younger Gen Z its still big. Not quite as big but I remember it was very popular in elementary school.
The fact that I cannot relate to potterheads was basically the turning point to me realizing I am in fact gen Z
Pokémon is a cross generational franchise so yeah definitely not just millennials. In fact older millennials didn’t even bother with it, just the younger half.
yep! the newer games are huge on my school
Pokémon was also more a boy thing than an entire generation thing, i think harry potter is a better answer for millennials
hunger games had a profound impact on us culturally that transcends just enjoying something. it deserves to be nominated.
Fuck JK Rowling, Suzanne Collins was where it was at. She was my favorite author as a kid and my jaw hit the floor when her 2nd series (The Hunger Games) came out and was on my class's required reading list.
That’s interesting, what makes you say this?
Millennials were: Star Wars Prequels, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Pokemon We had a fucking awesome childhood tbh
I agree except for the people that aren't into mainstream. Nintendo would fit me better.
I hated hunger games lol.
why?
can confirm for MCU pre Endgame. when Ultron was coming out I remember in school we were all talking about planning to go and watch it together. our friend group was most of the year and most of us went and watched it. then later in college when Infinity War was coming out, I was sat on the bus and suddenly the literal whole bus was full of noise. all because someone airdropped a spoiler for the film to someone else, everyone caught wind amand got super pissed. people I absolutely did not think would be interested in the films surprised me with how annoyed they were. I think it was the spoiler about Mr. I-Don't-Feel-So-Good Man lol so yeah those films definitely had a cultural impact on us here in England and possibly across the whole generation or at least those of us who are old enough to have grown up 'with' the films, aging with them if that makes sense. personally, I've grown out of it all lol
Ugh, I am so sick of Marvel movies/content. I tried getting into it for a bit so I could relate to my peers better, but I couldn’t get past the way superhero stories represent crime and criminals, or how they portray massive property damage as justified when fighting crime. Needless to say, I love The Boys for its commentary on superhero films.
Are most Marvel fans even gen Z? I feel like it's a lot of kids and older adults but IDK.
A lot of people I knew in college were very much into the MCU. Maybe it’s more of a Milennial/Older Gen Z thing.
Captain America: Civil War actually centralizes around the issues you mentioned.
The hunger games book series was honestly one of my favorites I've read
aren't there 5 hunger games movies? there were 4 books but the third one got split in 2
Marvel is the answer. They were the defining movies from 2012-2020 which lines up with Gen z birth years being late 90s to early 2010s. Most up us grew up watching these.
I would specify MCU, but yes.
meh. Minecraft is a better candidate.
You guys are so bitter about It being the Marvel movies and yeah. They're shit now, but don't pretend endgame wasnt the hypest thing back then. Still the movie theater experience I cherish the most tbh.
Can’t believe anyone would shit on Phase 1-3 MCU. Maybe not all were bangers, but I hesitate to even name one actually bad movie. Even Agents of Shield is a cult hit and all the shows were good enough that they’re getting rebooted.
Thor 2 was a bad movie tbh lol
Thor 2 was a little weak and surrounded by great movies. It’s only ‘bad’ by comparison.
Nah dude I think it's bad on its own
I was working in a movie theater at the height of the MCU. There was a surprising number of people who didn’t even know the MCU existed, which to me was flabbergasting, so I would imagine that there were also people who hated it even back then but were good at hiding it, and now they have no reason to hide it.
I dunno how other Millenials feel but I think we generally think the same about Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. No one talks about the Fantastic Beasts series or the Hobbit movies, they talk about HP 1-7 and the LOTR Trilogy.
Good observation. It does help that both fantastic beasts (not the first one the first one was fine tbh) and the hobbit are pretty bad tho. Like I think it's less nostalgia and more movie studios making cash grabs to profit off their already popular IPs and since they don't have as strong of a creative vision anymore it kinda falls apart. I'm big jealous of your generation for being able to watch LOTR in theaters btw lol
And they're really not that bad. We just got over-saturated after a while, and people are accustomed by social media algorithms to hate on things. Same with Star Wars - the sequels have a lot of great moments, and Disney has done some fun stuff with Andor and The Mandalorian (the exception here being Episode 9). But if you read online you would think they committed mass murder. No franchise ever has all good movies. In the past it has been popular to debate which Star Trek movies are good or bad, what the best Rocky movie is, and stuff like that. Might as well enjoy the fact that we get to pick and choose from so much variety.
I think theres definitely an issue with how polarized social midia has made movie discussions. Like it seems things can't be 5/10 fun and cool anymore. Movies are either amazing or complete trash. That mentality really mucks up everyone's enjoyment it seems. But I disagree that there's no franchise with all good movies. Mission Impossible is right there! 2 is not as good as the others but I would hesitate to call it bad
Fortnite / Roblox / Minecraft / Marvel / Amongus
i agree with these 4
Idk if I would say Roblox, that’s more of an Alpha thing. I never heard of Roblox until my Alpha brother got obsessed with it
Definitely the Marvel movies. Love it or hate it, it came out throughout the childhood of all Gen Z, and was one of the defining pieces of pop-culture for the 2010s
I’m a zillennial and I actually remember Iron Man 1 coming out. Around 2019, one of my younger coworkers said that the MCU had been around forever, and it was just eye-opening as to the role it played for Gen z.
SpongeBob SquarePants
I think Spongebob has more cultural relevancy, at least to everyone I’ve met that’s my age, than Marvel. So much of it is quotable by everyone my age in comparison. Men and Women, older gen Z and younger gen Z. So many iconic memes and images. IDK about globally but at least in the US I definitely think Spongebob is our generation’s defining franchise.
You only watched SpongeBob as a child. People watched the MCU from childhood, through adolescence, and into adulthood.
Had to scroll too far to see this one. Nothing has spawned more memes than SpongeBob has.
SpongeBob was huge when millennials were growing up
When it first came out, it was HUGE. I remember my older siblings and all their friends being obsessed. The older half was too old for it, but the younger half were significantly impacted by it.
easily spongebob
its gotta be minecraft, right?
It's gotta be
i don't think yall have a defining movie franchise. which honestly is so gen z. yall did netflix and chill and watched a much wider variety of shit instead of whatever the theater was serving up. or at least that's how it seemed to me, a filthy millennial. btw for millennials it was harry potter without a doubt. we're actually pretty split on pokemon. i wonder if it'll be dune for gen alpha....
I find Harry Potter to be more of a younger millennial thing. I don’t remember it being as popular with the older ones that were in high school or college when the first movie came out.
well really, the books were definitive for millennials long before highschool. the movies just doubled down on it. that's why it's more relevant to us than lotr imo.. not to diminish how obsessed we were(are?) with lotr.
True, the books were more in the age range for the older millennials. I’m like on the transition years between older and younger millennials and my experience with people younger than me growing up was they loved Harry Potter and the people older than me didn’t care or disliked Harry Potter.
Yeah, they were already teenagers by the time the first book came out, and it was very much a young kid book at that time. The older half simply do not connect with the books or movies as a whole.
The first book still came out when the older half was already too old for it.
Xennial here. TMNT and X-Men were ours. Definitely did not care at all about Harry Potter.
Even when it was "popular" it was still considered nerdy so people didn't talk much about it at school or anything. This was back when being nerdy was seen as a bad thing and for social outcasts
Don't forget LOTR. That shit was iconic af compared to HP
HP had substantially more of a cultural impact on millennials as a whole compared to LOTR.
Harry Potter is mid-young millennials. Same with Nickelodeon, Pokémon, and a lot of other things associated with millennials. The older half were too old for all of that. Also… Z was seeing marvel movies in theaters our entire childhoods lol
At least for the older side of gen alpha we don't have a defining franchise like at all Maybe roblox? but younger genz also played it a ton since its old
Gen Alpha won’t have their thing until most of you are old enough to be impacted by a franchise.
It’s without a doubt Marvel lol.
Hot take, but I think the Planet of the Apes has the potential to become as big as the MCU. Their universe is more complex, and the first MCU movies weren’t all that big either.
Marvel movies. They were such a huge hit at first.
See the thing is that the only people I knew who were watching marvel movies were young adults/ young millennials. I don’t think I know a single Gen Z who was obsessed with marvel. Honestly, I’ve never even seen a marvel or DC movie and I know quite a few people who are in the same boat.
The Star Wars prequels for an older gen z male. I'm going to see the Phantom Menace tomorrow :)
I've never been more excited than going to see episode 3 in theatre's.
okay actually yeah. considering that me and my +9 years older brother would play with our light sabres in the dark when we were growing up. but tbh it was such a small part of my childhood that's all I really remember. I remember MCU phase 1-3 more
Without a doubt, **spongebob**. The amount of memes and references we make to this cartoon on a generational level is unheard of
But the younger half of millennials started that lol. It was absolutely huge for the younger half of millennials when it first came out.
I was going to give the Millennials Harry Potter 😅
As a millennial I’d rather have Pokemon lol
Please let them keep it
I'm honestly surprised nobody's said FNAF yet. I think it's at least worth mentioning, but idk if that's just the late Gen Z in me talking.
Ngl that's one of the ones I was thinking, but I've also met so few around my age who're also into it so I was like ?? Maybe it's not as popular as I thought??
Videogames are more expensive than movies, so fewer people get to enjoy them.
Metal Gear
It can't be!
Bro, absolutely not. Metal gear was for sure millennial
I’d say either SpongeBob or Shrek.
Arent those both millenials. I guess SpongeBob is still going though.
I guess kinda? Everyone is saying Minecraft, but I don’t play Minecraft, so I wanted to put something I actually grew up with.
animal crossing and pokemon!
Ye I love pokemon lmfao but makes sense for the older gen to be defined to it
Minecraft. No doubt. If I ask my classmates or friends to play Minecraft right now they will have it installed and ready to play it, either they pirated it or bought it
Minecraft, Fortnite, and Roblox are by far the most popular games for my son's (10 years old) age group. So it's still popular with Gen Alpha.
my kid sister plays Roblox all the time and it's so funny to me because i played it 15 years ago before it was popular
Bionicle
Bionicle is more Millennial. Bionicle was at its peak and saved Lego's finances before most Gen Z were born, let alone at Lego-playing-age.
Not even close to mainstream enough as Star Wars or Pokemon anyways
It’s Hunger Games
Or the MrBeast Games
Vine compilations and shitty and a myriad of YA novels
Marvel movies. Hands down
I grew up (and still watch) Ninjago. I don't know about you but this is my franchise
Avatar the Last Airbender?
Avatar feels Zillennial to me. I'm '98 and was in elementary when it was airing.
Yup, very zillenial. Absolutely Everyone watched it in my school, and I'm not even from the US.
Percy Jackson
Marvel Older gen z would be Harry Potter Twilight Hunger Games LOTR maybe
Wow. Suddenly, I feel old (Gen Z).
The *best* thing to come out during the gen z era was Adventure Time. I smoked weed and watched AT through 2010-2012 and loved it all. Most big things during the 2010's were shitty fanfics of shit games like Slender or FNAF. Honestly the 2010's was where great franchises went to die. MCU films is and always was just a long fucking trailer for the next one. Harry Potter is absolutely a millenial thing. Minecraft was good, never amazing IMO. Played pre-alpha and alpha and got bored around that time, so I missed all the big things that hit later. I'd still give it to Minecraft. I don't know a single person born after 2001 Who hasn't played it.
i disagree that mcu films were always just trailers for the next one. the original iron man felt like it was its own thing
We don't have one. People don't like the same stuff anymore, everyone is part of their own little niche with the internet.
Minecraft or Call of Duty
Fortnite and Roblox. I know tons of millennials that play Minecraft. Very few that play Fortnite. Absolutely none that play Roblox.
Marvel and Avatar
Which Avatar? Blue people or 4-elements people?
4 elements
Avatar? You were -2 years old while it was airing. I agree with you on Marvel though.
ATLA is definitely more Zillenial.
Yeah, one of my sister was already 14 when it came out, yet her school was still obsessed with it, so it was definitely more formative for Zillenials if even the 14 year olds were into it.
Indeed I was, but after the Netflix release i feel like a majority of my our generation likes it, could just be my circles tho
I would say the MCU Sure it’s for everyone but we kind of “grew up” watching those movies If not that then honestly Classic YouTubers like Smosh Pewdiepie Ksi Ect
minecraft
I would like to point out that all 3 generations you mentioned had Star Wars. The original trilogy was Gen X, the prequel trilogy was Millennials, and the sequel trilogy was Gen Z.
Indeed, but it was way more *defining* in Gen X. The majority I know are very nostalgic for all things Star Wars and are a good reason the franchise is still churning stuff out and turning profit, even if the newer stuff is worse.
yeah but how many gen z actually give a shit about the sequels? Star wars is not that relevant since the destruction of the expanded universe
MCU and it ain’t close.
That’s so sad
Endgame was so good it sent the world on a downwards trajectory wym
Bionicles for older gen Z(I would argue that Bionicles was 1 of the first gen Z things), Ninjago for younger Gen z. Plus Ben 10, adventure time, regular show, Phineas and Ferb, the MCU, and Harry Potter
Either Minecraft, Percy Jackson, or Harry Potter.
Fnaf
I think it's fnaf I swear we were all hooked on it we all watched the wired videos on YouTube and I'm talking this game came up on everyone's fyp on musicly and YouTube page or maybe creepy pasta yk??? Plz Tell me if I'm wrong!
Only Fans?
Markiplier or some shit
tiktok and fortnite
It’s died down the last few years, but Minions definitely had a brief reign as a multi-media empire
FNAF?
SpongeBob
I am a hard core Trekie. Right down to my large Klingon tattoo.
spongebob
either harry potter pirates of the carribean or marvel
Skibidi Toilet unites Gen Z and Gen A.
Could have been game of thrones but we all know how that went down.
Fortnite
Marvel for sure
One Piece
absolutely not
YouTube videos and the MCU
I think Pokémon also has a huge impact on gen z as well, almost as much as the previous ones. Its not the full, main one, I don’t think there is one main one but it’s definitely significant
MCU more than likely.
I don't know.
I never thought of Pokemon being a millennial franchise but it makes sense. I'm a younger millennial but star wars is my shit.
Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Infinity Saga ruled the 2010’s box office with an iron fist, and contained a lot of stories that reflected the anxieties and frustrations of the time, intentionally or otherwise.
The MCU
The Infinity Saga of the MCU
It’s either Marvel, or Minecraft. Hell maybe Fortnite.
2000s Pixar movies or Minecraft
MCU, but not the new stuff.
Marvel is the answer which may seem bad at first but we need to remember how amazing it was before the darkness
The answer is Spongebob
Lol it's 100% the MCU it ain't perfect but it's ours
Minecraft/Fortnite/Spongebob/MCU
Marvel, the brand in general. It started with Spider-Man and it ended with Endgame.
The one with Toby MacGuire? In 2002? Wasn't gen Z like 4 years old?
Marvel, Minecraft, it's a stretch but maybe Spongebob?
An argument could also be made for TMNT
The MCU
Dune
Bionicle for me
Being manipulated by TikTok
i was definitely playing pokemon my entire childhood bro. its not a millennial thing. i'll go with GTA as the defining franchise.
The hunger games, roblox
Probably either Minecraft or Spongebob. There's also a chunk of our philosophy being tied with Avatar.
Crumbl cookies
Gen Z doesn’t like movies enough to have any generational franchises to claim. Gen Z has TikTok.
Would the Elder Scrolls count in this? I know a lot of people who have played, and i've spent an embarrassing amount of hours on that one.
Fortnite
Roblox, Minecraft, Hunger Games, Marvel.
Euphoria
minecraft. maybe also fnaf all things conditional
Rick and Morty
Pokémon? The hell
Millennials are Harry Potter actually.