This April will go down in history for two things, and two things only – the highly anticipated release of Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame and the final season of popular TV series, Game of Thrones (GOT).
Both premieres are happening so close together and the franchises have begun to occupy more and more of Carousell users’ minds, with over 30,000 searches on the classified marketplace for Marvel and GoT related listings.
Interest in both franchises naturally approached a fever pitch as each respective premiere date drew near, and this was reflected in Carousell’s search data. From January to April 2019, the total number of searches for Marvel increased by a little over 115%, and the total number of searches for GoT by a staggering 345%.
Both are cultural behemoths, with stories that span across years and an overwhelmingly large and intricately linked web of characters, culminating in April. Zooming into the first two weeks of the month, where the excitement really takes off, reveals how truly popular each franchise is among Malaysians.
Marvel-related searches in Malaysia completely dominated GoT-related searches, with more than 28,000 searches, outnumbering them by over 14 times. It has accounted for almost 0.24% of all searches made on Carousell in the past four weeks.
According to Carousell’s global in-app statistics, the most searched character of all time in the Marvel Universe is none other than the charismatic billionaire, Iron Man, with more than 500,000 searches to his name.
The original Avengers line-up, Hulk, Thor and Captain America also joined Iron Man as the top searched characters on Carousell. Meanwhile, bad (or misunderstood) guy Thanos, saw almost 100,000 searches, placing him just behind Spider-Man.
On the other hand, GoT’s protagonist Jon Snow is the most searched for character with more than 1,800 searches. Surprisingly, the Night King is a close second with just over 1,600 searches. A clear case of life imitating art, as Jon Snow and the Night King head for an epic showdown in the final season.
The most valuable Marvel-themed item sold on the app was a limited edition Avengers themed pinball machine for more than USD4,000 (RM16,595.60). Meanwhile, an entire set of 32 Game of Thrones Funko Pop toys was sold for USD610 (RM2,530.83) in Singapore.
