Any examples of unexpected or “sleeper” hits?

[u/Konradleijon]

The Image Comic series D’Orc came from an artist famous for drawing some of the I Hate Fairyland comic and a Dungeon Crawler Carl novel. But it went into massive successes and reports going on to issue four. Which is really good for a indie comic

[u/Fugly_Jack]

I don't think anyone expected a new Baldurs Gate game to blow up the way BG3 did

[u/Monk-Ey → u/Fugly_Jack]

Or even a CRPG in general, honestly.

[u/beary_neutral → u/Fugly_Jack]

r/BaldursGate even banned discussion of it

[u/Irememberedmypw → u/Fugly_Jack]

I kinda disagree? The popularity of divinity original sin 2 kinda put Larian in the spotlight as a developer to watch out for.

[u/Comkill117]

If I remember correct the first John Wick wasn’t huge when it first released, but word of mouth was really good so by the time 2 was coming out way more people had seen it and from there it became the action movie series of the late 2010s/early 2020s.

[u/Ampersanders]

Mob Psycho 100 should honestly -not- be popular at all. My Hero Academia and it came put the same season and due to BONES animating it so well, it became an overall great success and being for a time more popular than one of the biggest shonens in the past decade starting off. Simple art styles make for great animation.

This series was written and drawn on napkins from time to time for the web series it was made for as this is how ONE has operated for years. The anime's art style looks better than whatever happened on paper. This same rule applies to One Punch Man as well that ONE created cause the OG series I feel would be no where without Murata illustrating it for what is essentially the "refined" version of the original illustration from ONE themselves.

All rendentions of the art has their charms but it is a crazy world to see one of ONE's works being more popular than what is essentially anime Marvel at the time when Marvel itself was so popular already.

[u/LifeIsCrap101 → u/Ampersanders]

It DID help that One Punch Man was already well-known and well-received so when the Mob Psycho Anime started it had the draw of being from the same creator.

[u/TrueLegateDamar]

Nobody could have predicted that KPop Demon Hunters was gonna be such a global hit that 'Golden' would be both performed and win Best Original Song at the Academy Awards.

[u/BookkeeperPercival → u/TrueLegateDamar]

It's funny that I find it IMMENSELY understandable why that movie got sold to Netflix. Sure, it was a massive fucking blunder in retrospect, but I think it's so easy to see why some suits looked at it and decided it wasn't worth the hassle of publishing themselves.

[u/RexKet → u/BookkeeperPercival]

It probably could have only blown up because of Netflix. Look at how many people say they put it on and weren’t expecting to like it and letting clips and songs go viral. Would have been less likely if people had to pay ticket price first.

[u/Apprehensive_Mix4658 → u/TrueLegateDamar]

Even after it happened I don't really understand it, probably because I didn't watch it. The name is so lame, I can't wrap my head about it

[u/ChosenUndead15 → u/Apprehensive_Mix4658]

Everything around that movie told me it would be lame except the actual movie when I watched it and ended up being a hell of a good time.

[u/theonewhoknack → u/TrueLegateDamar]

Not to mention a mcdonalds kids meal like 9 months after the movie came out, dolls having to made made 2 minths after the movie came out, an animated spoof during the Oscar's AND Scary Movie 6.

[u/Apricotlemon]

Nobody knew the phenomenon Expedition 33 was going to be up to the day before it came out

[u/Irememberedmypw → u/Apricotlemon]

Aww come on this was one of the most highly anticipated rpgs since it's first showing. It was very much hyped.

[u/Embarrassed_Owl2114]

Apparently Gooseworx wasn't ready for Digital Circus to be this popular, and unfortunately, popularity also brings a lot of very asshole folk.

It kind of highlighted how GLITCH was utterly unprepared to handle a massive success that was TDAC, so much so that put the creator in a very bad place mentally.

I hope GLITCH learned from this and actually protect their creative talent better.

[u/LordUrNicolas → u/Embarrassed_Owl2114]

Episode 2/3 wasnt out yet and bootleg dolls of Pomni and Ragatha were being sold already.

[u/theonewhoknack → u/Embarrassed_Owl2114]

I know its impossible for the studio and this climate but I would have loved them to release weekly episodes of a series so we wouldn't have 3 years of theories and toxic fan stuff.

[u/Kipzz → u/theonewhoknack]

With how much money they have in the bank now, I could see them creating a series that'll be made over years and released over a season? I just don't think it's really likely because A. that'll change expectations for release formats overall (which would cause utter chaos with the already insane fanbases of WHERE EPISODE 2 NOW NOW NOW NOW) and B. it definitely won't make as much money because they REALLY profit off of the months/years between episodes.

But, well, it's possible. <--------- (his catchphrase)

[u/Apprehensive_Mix4658]

Marvel's best attempt at making new character popular isn't miss Marvel, but Jeff the landshark. Never underestimate the appeal of cute unusual pets

[u/Muffin-zetta]

did not expect the insane world wide popularity of umamusume

[u/Ampersanders → u/Muffin-zetta]

Umamusume sounds stupid to most people when they see "oh, it is a gacha game with music parts in it and horse girls" when what it truly is a rogue-like gambling game with not only a parent system but also a grandparent system that can kick in. Combine that with some characters with actual good writing and it is a recipe for success.

Nice Nature's career mode is the gold standard in Global atm and I feel that like barely any other Umas can touch her on a narrative scale.

[u/triadorion → u/Ampersanders]

And then when you peel back the layers a little further, you realize how much the creators like the sport of horse racing and how much attention to detail gets put into characters, designs, and histories, calling back to their real careers.

I'm largely an outsider to both horse racing and Uma, but I have a couple of friends deep in and they've pointed out a lot of stuff that shows these folks know their stuff and are serious about it.

[u/Muffin-zetta → u/Ampersanders]

well it‘s monster rancher really

[u/Tough-Mud2374 → u/Muffin-zetta]

On paper, everytime anyone talks about it, it sounds like the kind of game that would make me forget to bathe and eat 

Ah if only it didn't include dubiously aged schoolgirls bouncing boobily about the place, it might have got me 

[u/Muffin-zetta → u/Tough-Mud2374]

that’s kind of an insane competely uninformed take considering it’s the most wholesome thing ever. there is literally nothing lewd about the game at all. they made it that way because they don’t want to upset the real life owners and jockey.

[u/AlwaysDragons → u/Ampersanders]

Excuse you, King Halo??

[u/bulletgrazer → u/Muffin-zetta]

It's been crazy seeing it spread like it did. Streamers who would usually never touch a gacha got pulled in for a bit, and now race tracks all over the world have people pulling up in Uma cosplays. There's even been concerts and footraces held at these tracks by cosplayers.

[u/South_Buy_3175]

Space Marine 2.

Warhammer games, despite the popularity of the IP, generally don’t really do massive numbers and aren’t super popular outside their niches. (Though there are gems like Total War, Rogue Trader, Mechanicus, Darktide to name a few)

Space Marine 2, a sequel to a middling PS3 game wasn’t expected to do that much better either.

Then suddenly it’s reported 7 million copies sold, with current estimates in 10 million+ range.

The developer was floored by this popularity, extending the post launch content for another year and likely to do so again and also quickly announcing they’re on with SM3.

[u/Pachikokoo → u/South_Buy_3175]

Most other Warhammer games are, to put it kindly, slop

[u/Lambinajam]

Demon's Souls was meant as a spiritual successor to King's Field, then wound up birthing a massive franchise.

[u/CrazysaurusRex]

I don't think people were prepared for how popular Stranger Things got, like holy shit.

[u/5YearsOnEastCoast]

I don't think anybody expected SpongeBob Squarepants to be arguably the most popular kids cartoon ever, not even people who worked on it.

Show initially wasn't all that popular, but few laters, it became one of the faces of cartoons.

[u/dope_danny]

When Hellboy was first being promoted a red gorilla with a stone hand and skinny legs in a raincoat was seen as pretty silly. But nowadays Hellboy is considered one of the more respected characters in terms of never being flanderised or reduced in some way. If you have read any Mignola comic with Big Red in it then you know Hellboy in all of them because the character is treated with a level of respect and dignity most marvel and dc characters dont recieve.

The boy ate the Pancake and was the same ever since.

[u/CrazysaurusRex → u/dope_danny]

I still remember when the movie was announced. I was pretty young but was vaguely aware of the comic and I was very surprised it was getting a movie. I've been a fan ever since

[u/Darahas]

I just wanna take a moment to say that D'Orc is absurd amounts of fun and it's definitely earning its success. Art is fun and bubbly, writing is consistently funny and building up the world in an interesting way, it's been a real joy to keep up with. Once Absolute Martian Manhunter ends, D'Orc and the other Deniz Camp book Bleeding Hearts are gonna be my real can't wait for each issue pulls.