History Main / NewbieBoom

** Happened in-universe when Gold Roger was executed and said his treasure would be for the one who found it in the Grand Line. This was know as the start of The Golden Age of Piracy for all the new pirates who embarked in finding it; more senior pirates, however, saw it as a very negative thing as the seas will be plagued by new romance-driven pirates.

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', the manga was a modest success by the later part of 2016, its debut year in Japan, growing to sell around 130 thousand copies per volume in a month by late 2017, early 2018, a certified stable series by normal metrics; then the anime happened in 2019... and the series ''exploded'' to an insane degree in Japan by the time broadcast reached Episode 19, Season 1, generating tidal waves that resonated all the way to the west. Demon Slayer went from selling close to 130k per volume in a month to selling ''1 million a half copies per week'' in 2020 at the height of its anime generated hype, this sales insanity lasted for weeks, months, ''more than a year'' without end, propelling the series to break all sorts of sales records with the humongous numbers of new fans that sparked in Japan, and the world. In just 4 years of publication, mere 23 volumes in length, the manga sold 150 million copies, an outrageous milestone that no other manga in history has ever accomplished before in that exact timeframe. And the movie ''Mugen Train'' in itself drew newbies to the series; during 2020, when the world was in the heat of the Covid-19 Pandemic, it is responsible for basically ''single-handedly'' saving the cinema industry from going under after those closures due to the pandemic, edging out even Hayao Miyazaki's ''Spirited Away'', and is the highest grossing film ''worldwide'' in 2020 (and the first non-Hollywood film to do this), and the highest grossing Japanese film of all time.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' has an interesting history with its popularity. Season 1 was a modest hit, [[OvershadowedByAwesome but it had]] [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable some]] [[Webcomic/MobPsycho100 pretty]] [[Anime/YuriOnIce stiff]] [[Literature/ReZero competition]] the year it aired. By the time season 2 aired, it had an unexpected surge in popularity, helped by a few factors: 1. The ending of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}: Shippuden'' and the [[ContestedSequel divisiveness]] of ''Manga/{{Boruto}}.'' 2. The long anticipated second season of ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' only getting [[ItsShortSoItSucks 12 episodes]] ([[AwesomenessWithdrawal after a four year wait, no less]]), while ''Hero Academia's'' second season got 24. Both of those helped fill a void.

** ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'' caused another influx of new fans. Due to being the first mainline 3D Kirby game it recieved much more attention than any Kirby game before it resulting in a lot of curious people, including several [=YouTubers=] to try out Kirby for the first time.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'', which was the first game in the series after an eight-year hiatus. In fact, thanks to that hiatus, a fair number of newcomers came to believe that this 2002 UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube game was actually the first installment in the series (and meant to be [[FollowTheLeader Nintendo's answer to]] ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved''), despite ''Metroid'' originating on the NES sixteen years prior. It got to the point where many referred to ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'' as simply ''[[VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus Metroid 2]]'', and the misconception that the 3D ''Prime'' games [[SequelDisplacement are the mainline series rather than the 2D sidescrollers]] is still common to this day.

* The fandom for ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'' grew significantly after its release on Creator/DisneyPlus, ''especially'' on Website/{{TikTok}}.

** Somewhere around the mid 2000s to the ''Diamond and Pearl'' days, ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' went from being a rather obscure adaptation of ''Pokemon'' to being well-known amongst fans. It's pretty much the second adaptation besides the anime, never mind that there are many other manga out there (one is [[Manga/PocketMonsters even more long-running]]). And thanks to Europe starting to release the manga in the 2010s, sales ''exploded'', making it cross 10 million sales by the 2010s.

* Whether or not you're a fan of ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' can be a contentious thing in the ''Anime/YuGiOh'' fandom. Many people found the source material through the Abridged series, with the abridger's characters even claiming at one point that most of the modern interest in Yu-Gi-Oh came from his show. He's not entirely wrong, but there are those who continually mix manga canon, anime canon, and Abridged canon (or confuse Abridged characterization with canon characterization)--despite the original fans, for the most part, believing Abridged to be a different show altogether.
* For years ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' was a considered a CultClassic amongst mainstream shonen series. It was occasionally mentioned when referring to the "Big 3" (''Naruto'', ''Bleach'', and ''One Piece'') but never had the popularity of even ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' or [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist its manga]]. Circa 2011 to 2014 it boomed in popularity thanks to the 2011 adaptation, along with fans of ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' and ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' getting into it as a substitute after their series began ending. Even more so once it wound up on Toonami, and now it is not uncommon to go to an anime convention and find a good number of cosplayers of ''Hunter X Hunter'' characters.

** The ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' fandom got a sudden surge of new members when the game ''[[KeepCirculatingTheTapes finally]]'' got rereleased on the UsefulNotes/WiiU. At one point it was ''the'' most downloaded UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole game on the console, which resulted in many newcomers to the series, with some being people who had never heard of the game at that point. This notably caused some friction between [[OldGuardVersusNewBlood those who were in the cult fandom before it gained a wider audience]], as not only are the newer fans more willing to point out ''[=EarthBound=]''[='s=] flaws, they've even started to criticize ''VideoGame/Mother3''[='s=] flaws upon finding out about it, which had been considered a SacredCow.

** ''Pokémon'' went through this in Generation IV with ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'', which helped introduce lots of new fans into the series. This is mostly attributed to them being the first ''Pokemon'' games to be online-capable, allowing you to trade and battle with people from all over the world, thus making the community aspect of the games a bit more accessible. In general, the DS installments (''Diamond/Pearl/Platinum'', ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver HeartGold/SoulSilver]]'', ''[[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black/White]]'', and [[VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2 their sequels]]) are seen as the "second wave" of the fandom.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' caused a huge boom akin to the first wave of Pokémania in the '90s. Complete with news coverage from all over the world, both good and bad, and even making its way to sources that don't even touch video games or anything "geeky". It released the same year as Pokémon's 20th Anniversary, thus introducing a number of ''Pokémon Go'' players to later generations, and greatly benefited to the success of ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' a few months later.

* There are die-hard ''VideoGame/StarFox'' fans who still don't realize ''VideoGame/StarFox64'' wasn't the first game in the series. This isn't helped by its ToughActToFollow status within the fandom, as subsequent entries have Nintendo heavily experiment with the property by attaching other genres and mechanics on top of the core RailShooter gameplay ([[BrokenBase to mixed results]]).

Compare and contrast TheRedStapler, ColbertBump, SongAssociation. UsefulNotes/EternalSeptember was UsefulNotes/{{Usenet}}'s great Newbie Boom in 1993. See also RevivalByCommercialization and GatewaySeries for those shows, movies, video games, and other forms of media which triggered the boom in the first place, and FandomLifeCycle which is relevant to this trope.

* The ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series has ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening''. While ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' was what scored international interest in the ''Fire Emblem'' series, with ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' being the first entry to leave Japanese shores, the series would remain quite niche. All games after ''The Blazing Blade'' would sell rather poorly, to the point where the developers thought they'd have to shelf the franchise entirely after one last game. That one last game? ''Awakening'', which not only became the first entry in the series to sell more than a million copies, but also completely revitalized the franchise and ''finally'' made the titles popular overseas, which is where the bulk of those newfound sales originated from.

** Thanks to being a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, the ''Smash'' series itself tends to give other franchises a ColbertBump. The most notable examples over the years are ''VideoGame/EarthBound''[[note]](A {{JRPG}} series that sold poorly in North America because of [[OurProductSucks an awkward marketing campaign]], and may have become forgotten in the West if it wasn't for Ness being one of the original fighters in ''Smash 64''. All three games in the series are now considered {{Cult Classic}}s.)[[/note]], ''Franchise/FireEmblem''[[note]](The {{trope namer}} for MarthDebutedInSmashBros, the popularity of Marth and Roy led to the series finally getting localized from the seventh game onward, giving the games a foothold in the West until its own, self-created Newbie Boom grew the fanbase and cemented its popularity a decade later.)[[/note]], and ''VideoGame/KidIcarus''.[[note]](The newfound attention got the North America-only sequel to see release on the Japanese UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole, followed by [[VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising an entirely new game]] produced by ''Smash Bros.'' creator Creator/MasahiroSakurai himself.)[[/note]] Fighters added as DLC especially get this treatment, thanks to receiving much greater focus in dedicated WebVideo/NintendoDirect videos where their franchise history is explained in detail.

* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' had an infamously disasterous launch, yet despite this, ''Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners'' got people to return to the game and bring in some new ones, and while the game itself hasn't completely fixed its initial problems, the efforts taken to get the game fixed up since those 2 years at least got players to see it more favorably.

* ''VideoGame/WarioWareGold'' was not only an acclaimed SurprisinglyImprovedSequel that took the ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' series [[WinBackTheCrowd back to its roots]], but it helped bring the series into the mainstream and also re-introduced and endeared the ''[=WarioWare=]'' crew to new audiences who [[WidgetSeries didn't bother with the series]] beforehand. The top-notch presentation and hilarious story being a clinching point. ''Gold'' also had the novelty of being the first entry in the series that was [[SuddenlyVoiced fully voice-acted]], something rarely seen in a Nintendo game, which was another major hook that won over new fans (and the dubs were done in multiple languages, for all of which they were acclaimed for their exceptional quality).

* This happened to the ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' fandom when ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' started to air. Previously, the fandom was mostly a haven for women (not that [[PeripheryDemographic male fans]] didn't exist though) who loved the toys and fondly remembered the G1 cartoons. Then when ''Friendship is Magic'' was introduced, the previous fandom was swamped by a huge influx of new, mostly male fans (dubbed [[FanCommunityNicknames "bronies"]]). Similarly, the brony fandom ''itself'' experienced a boom around Season 2, when the initial [[DoubleStandard shock of "boys liking]] [[GirlShowGhetto girl things"]] wore off for the most part and people began to check it out for the sake of the show itself.

** When the previously shelved English translation of ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' came out on Wii U Virtual Console, fans that either [[SequelDisplacement hadn't heard of the game]] or [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil didn't want to deal with the legal grayness of downloading a ROM]] of a NoExportForYou game were able to play it. Unlike ''[=EarthBound=]'', due to its [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness differences from later games in the series]], it's considered an {{acceptable target|s}} for criticism, allowing fans both old and new to get along online and on Website/{{Miiverse}}. For a time, there were even people walking others fresh off of ''[=EarthBound=]'' [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments through the game every step of the way]].

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' is one of Nintendo's more modest series, but it saw a huge popularity bump with its third installment. ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'' would sell twice the amount of its previous two entries (plus a remake) ''combined'' within its first year, solidifying Luigi as a hero (albeit [[CowardlyLion a cowardly one]]) in the eyes of countless new players who were eager to enjoy a Nintendo-style take on ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}''. It also solidified Creator/NextLevelGames' worth to Nintendo, for in a very rare move, the company would purchase NLG in early 2021 to make the Canadian developers a wholly-owned studio.

* The LiveActionAdaptation [[Film/JemAndTheHolograms2015 of]] ''WesternAnimation/JemAndTheHolograms'' did this for all the wrong reasons. The [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks overwhelming backlash]] from the trailers and the film revived people's interest in the cartoon series and boosted attention for the newer comics (see Comic Books above). Like with the comics, many of the new fans attracted by the reaction to the film weren't even born yet when the cartoon was originally broadcast. It's arguable that the negative reaction to the film prevented the ''Jem'' fandom from dying out.

* ''[[VideoGame/WarioWare WarioWare Gold]]'' was not only an acclaimed SurprisinglyImprovedSequel that took the ''[=WarioWare=]'' series [[WinBackTheCrowd back to its roots]], but it helped bring the series into the mainstream and also re-introduced and endeared the ''[=WarioWare=]'' crew to new audiences who [[WidgetSeries didn't bother with the series]] beforehand. The top-notch presentation and hilarious story being a clinching point. ''Gold'' also had the novelty of being the first entry in the series that was [[SuddenlyVoiced fully voice-acted]], something rarely seen in a Nintendo game, which was another major hook that won over new fans.

* The ''Masters of the Universe'' fandom (mainly the ''She-Ra'' half of it) grew massively in the mid-2010s when Creator/{{Netflix}} released the ''She-Ra'' ContinuityReboot ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower''. It made sense, since the fans who grew up with the 80s' ''He-Man'' and ''She-Ra'' cartoons now had kids of their own to share the franchise with. Still, most of the new fans were either [[LGBTFanbase LGBTQ+ people looking for a cartoon to identify with]] or had converted from another fandom. It's arguable that the newbie flood saved the ''Masters of the Universe'' fandom from dying out, as the franchise still had the MerchandiseDriven '80s cartoon stigma at that point and [[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse2002 the 2002 attempted reboot]] had long been cancelled.

** While the Looney Tunes has already been engrained in pop culture since the 1940s and 1950s. The success of ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' and especially ''Film/SpaceJam'' resulted in the general public quickly getting interest in the series for the first time since Creator/MelBlanc's passing in 1989. Alongside introducting the Looney Tunes to another generation of children. As a result, Warner Brothers begun making newer animated Looney Tunes projects for Television (notably ''WesternAnimation/TheSylvesterAndTweetyMysteries'', ''WesternAnimation/BabyLooneyTunes'', and ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'') throughout the mid 1990s and early 2000s.

** Later on, [[Franchise/DragonBall "What's with all these teenagers wearing orange gis?"]], [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries "Why is everyone holding red and white balls?"]], [[Anime/DigimonAdventure "What are these furries doing at our anime convention?"]], [[Franchise/YuGiOh "Why does everyone have a deck of cards with them?"]], [[Anime/{{Hamtaro}} "Why is everybody bringing in their pet hamsters?]]", "[[Manga/{{Inuyasha}} Why are some of the guys wearing red robes and holding oversized swords?"]], [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist "Why are there a bunch of guys in metal armor?"]], [[Manga/OnePiece "What's with the people dressed as pirates?"]], [[Manga/TokyoMewMew "Why are all the girls wearing cat ear headbands?"]], [[Manga/AzumangaDaioh "What's with the girls dressed in Japanese schoolgirl uniforms?"]], [[Manga/{{Naruto}} "Why are they wearing metallic headbands?"]], [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica "Why are those girls dressed in frilly outfits and talking about selling their soul for a wish?"]], [[Manga/DeathNote "Why are people bringing in black notebooks?"]], [[Manga/LuckyStar "Why are the girls wearing Japanese schoolgirl outfits again?"]], [[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya "Why are some of the girls dressed in schoolgirl outfits yet again and talking about having reality-warping powers and supernatural stuff?"]], [[Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub "Why are all these people wearing blue blazers?"]], [[Webcomic/OnePunchMan "Why are there so many bald guys with capes?"]], [[Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba "Why are all these people wearing bamboo as gags?"]], [[Anime/KillLaKill "Why are all those girls dressed in skimpy outfits and wielding giant scissor blades?"]], [[Manga/AttackOnTitan "Why are those guys wearing uniforms and saluting their hearts?"]], [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure "Why are those guys dressed so flamboyantly and making references to classic rock songs?"]] (You get the point.)

* The ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' light novel fandom got a doubling or tripling in size as soon as the anime came out. It would only increase after the dub of the series was announced.
* Most mangas get this once they are turned into anime; ''Manga/SoulEater'', for instance. After said anime are dubbed, this happens again, as in the ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' example above.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' has an interesting history with its popularity. Season 1 was a modest hit, [[OvershadowedByAwesome but it had]] [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable some]] [[Webcomic/MobPsycho100 pretty]] [[Anime/YuriOnIce stiff]] [[LightNovel/ReZero competition]] the year it aired. By the time season 2 aired, it had an unexpected surge in popularity, helped by a few factors: 1. The ending of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}: Shippuden'' and the [[ContestedSequel divisiveness]] of ''Manga/{{Boruto}}.'' 2. The long anticipated second season of ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' only getting [[ItsShortSoItSucks 12 episodes]] ([[AwesomenessWithdrawal after a four year wait, no less]]), while ''Hero Academia's'' second season got 24. Both of those helped fill a void.

* A much more sinister variant occurred in Germany in the 1930s, when the electoral success of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP, or Nazis) led to a huge influx of new members, even before the party formally took power. This really happened in two waves; the first in 1930 after the Nazis came second in the elections to the ''Reichstag'' (the German Parliament), and the second in 1933 after Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor. The extent of this was such that the Party itself created tiers of membership based on when one had joined, with those who had been members before 1930 - with the implication that these members were the truly devoted core of fanatics - being given the title of ''Alter Kämpfer'', or "Old Fighter", to distinguish them from the ''Septemberlinge'' - the "Septemberlings", those who had only joined when the Party had enjoyed some success. The first 100,000 Party members were given the Golden Party Badge for their long service, while the Blood Order was awarded only to those who had taken part in the Munich Putsch of 1923, to mark them out from those whom even some of the Nazi leadership disparaged as jumping on the bandwagon.

* The fandom for ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' had been pretty active for the majority the 2010s, largely beginning with reruns of the show airing on [[Creator/DiscoveryFamily The Hub]] from 2012 to 2014, but it would eventually reach its peak in November 2020, the month [[WesternAnimation/Animaniacs2020 the reboot]] was released in.

* Music/{{Phish}} gained new fans in 1995 after the death of Music/GratefulDead leader Jerry Garcia left generations of Deadheads without a band to follow around the country. Those who were interested in checking out Phish over other jam band options like Widespread Panic or Blues Traveler couldn't have picked a better time: fall 1995 is considered to be one of Phish's very best tours, with several of their most acclaimed concerts happening in that span of time. While some Deadheads were turned off by Phish's different mix of styles and jamming techniques, and did not stick around for long as a result, many others continued to follow them due to the quality of their concerts. The larger fanbase cemented Phish's status as the "heirs" to the Dead's status as the top group in the jam band scene.

* The fandom for ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' had been pretty active throughout the 2010s, starting with reruns of the show airing on [[Creator/DiscoveryFamily The Hub]] from 2012 to 2014, but it would eventually reach its peak in November 2020, the month [[WesternAnimation/Animaniacs2020 the reboot]] was released in.

It also probably helped that ''STRIVE'' was the first major fighting game released since the beginning of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic--the subpar online of many fighting games at the time meant the genre was greatly hurt by said pandemic killing offline events and forcing many tournaments to go online only. ''STRIVE'' releasing with superior netplay to many of its contemporaries led to many players of other fighting games who normally hadn't played a ''Guilty Gear'' game before to give it a shot, both at a casual level and at a competitive level.
** The series also saw another massive boom mid 2022. This time predominantly from the LGBTQ+ community, with the inclusion of series veteran Bridget, who was changed from being a boy who was simply dressed in feminine clothing to a full on transgender woman.

* Music/TaylorSwift with her 2020 duology of ''Music/{{folklore|2020}}'' and ''Music/{{evermore|2020}}'', as well as her [[TheNotRemix rerecordings]] of her earlier albums in the early 2020s. While 2019's ''Music/{{Lover}}'' had pulled her out of the AudienceAlienatingEra she'd fallen into in the latter half of the 2010s, that album, with its OlderAndWiser lyrics and tone, was propelled mostly by her now-adult fans from her initial rise in the late '00s and early '10s. ''folklore'' and ''evermore'', however, had the fortune of coming out just months after the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic started, and her pivot to FolkMusic and BaroquePop wound up perfectly in tune with the musical zeitgeist of the period, especially the rise of BedroomPop. Meanwhile, not only did "Taylor's Versions" of her older albums bring those songs back to mainstream attention, but the [[ScrewedByTheLawyers circumstances]] of why she recorded them allowed her to [[{{Pun}} shake off]] her image as a pop culture villain and frame herself as a defender of artists' intellectual property rights against major corporations. As such, she quickly gained a new generation of teenage fans.

* Music/GunsNRoses experienced a boom in the mid-2000s. It started with Velvet Revolver putting Slash, Duff and Matt back in the spotlight, the release of the ''Greatest Hits'' album (which has spent 500 weeks on the ''Billboard 200''), and the prominent use of "Welcome to the Jungle" in VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas (which also featured Axl Rose as a radio DJ), all of which combined to make GNR's music and musicians more accessible to new listeners than they had been in years. A few years later Music/{{Slash|Musician}} starred in [[VideoGame/GuitarHero Guitar Hero III]], which made him the ''de facto'' rock guitar god in the eyes of a generation, especially among people who do not listen to a lot of rock music and are not familiar with very many guitarists. They experienced another boom in the 2010s with the ''Not in This Lifetime... Tour'', wherein half the classic lineup returned.

* In 2014, Omocat announced a game based on an old webcomic of hers, simply titled ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}''. As the years passed with little if any news, most people lost interest and regarded it as {{Vaporware}}. Then on Christmas Day 2020 the game [[SavedFromDevelopmentHell actually came out]]. As the "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews on Steam could tell you, ''Omori'' was a smash hit.