In 2022, Euphoria took fans on an emotional journey that no one on social media could escape

Inactivity can sometimes lead to losing fans, especially when you’re new to the scene. In entertainment, it’s all about building momentum.

If an artist has a hit song that tops the charts, an EP usually quickly follows. If a series debuts and captures an audience, expect a media run from the cast and then for them to start working on bringing another season while the name is still hot. With so much content to choose from, extended time away can quickly lead to disinterest, and the enthusiasm from fans just won’t be the same once a return is actually made. That wasn’t the case for Euphoria.

The HBO drama series, and its fans, returned at the top of 2022, and the excitement surrounding the show earned Euphoria the title of Most Enthusiastic Fandom in FanSided’s Fandoms of the Year. Annually, FanSided highlights the 100 biggest fandoms of the year across categories ranging from sports to entertainment. While 100 fandoms are celebrated, only a few receive superlative recognition. Euphoria was a part of that select few in 2022.

Euphoria has the Most Enthusiastic Fandom of 2022

After captivating an audience in the summer of 2019, the demand for a second season was intense. While fans were ready to binge eight new episodes as soon as the season one finale ended, they prepared themselves for a year-long wait, the typical time it takes for a series to return. But, much like the plot in the series, fans had no idea what would happen next.

Euphoria didn’t return in 2020 or in 2021. Between the pandemic and busy schedules, it wasn’t until January of 2022 that the show made its return— two years, five months, and six days after the season one finale. The show was kind enough to share two, one-hour holiday specials in December 2020 and January 2021 but those specials didn’t have much plot development. They were essentially just therapy sessions for two of the main characters (and the fans).

When the actual new season arrived in January of 2022, it quickly became evident that the hiatus was a case of absence making the heart grow fonder instead of a situation where the show missed a window of opportunity. Premiering on a Sunday night, the storylines introduced in the second season’s first episode quickly took over social media, and the mass reaction that night was just a taste of what was to come in the next eight weeks.

Fans of Euphoria made the show the topic of the internet

The show did its part in giving fans something to talk about. From the incredible acting to the dramatic high school storylines of hopeless romance, drugs, friendship, family, and boy drama, Euphoria delivered a script that sparked a ton of discourse. Fortunately for the popularity of the show, it was the discourse that fans were willing to have. Unfortunately for people who didn’t watch the show or care in the slightest about the series, they had to endure this discourse from the fandom daily, especially on Sunday nights.

If you were on social media in the first two months of 2022, there was no escaping posts about Euphoria. Regardless of what your timeline typically looked like, it became infiltrated by Euphoria fans every Sunday. If you were a fan and weren’t watching the show as it aired, it was best to log out of all social media accounts until you watched the latest episode or the show would’ve been spoiled. If you were one of the few people who didn’t get pulled into the universe of Euphoria High, that means you were probably a part of the many tweets asking: who are Maddy and Cassie and why is everyone talking about them?

The show had a lot of fans, and the fans’ enthusiasm made the show everyone’s business whether they watched it or not. The Euphoria fandom was kind of like the couple that always argues in public. Everyone else on social media was the awkward onlookers who try their hardest to act as if they don’t notice or aren’t paying attention but the commotion is simply too much to not be distracted by it. That’s a very Euphoria-esque example but it perfectly captures the way the fans got everyone involved in the show’s drama.

The moment that really put the fandoms’ online movement into perspective was Super Bowl weekend. In America, Super Bowl Sunday is essentially a national holiday. Everything stops for the big game. However, in 2022, the Super Bowl was forced to share February 13 with Euphoria. The sixth episode of the season was airing that Sunday and it was clear that episode was going to be climactic. This led to a ton of online discussions and memes about how Euphoria had the real main event of the day.

Obviously, the Super Bowl was still a massive event that pulled in a much larger audience than the drama series did but there were definitely a ton of people who turned their attention to the riveting action of Euphoria the second a Super Bowl champion was crowned. The show even jokingly being in conversation with an event like the Super Bowl spoke to the work that the enthusiastic fans had been doing to keep the show’s name buzzing.

Now, fans are back to waiting but they aren’t just resting. With the show not likely to return until 2024, season two is still making waves on social media. With more than a year ahead of fans before they can immerse into the Euphoria universe again, it’s safe to say that there’s plenty of enthusiasm to carry the fandom through another hiatus.

For the full list of FanSided’s Fandoms of the Year, click here.