What Millions of Votes Reveal About the Star Trek Fandom

May 28

Franchise Spotlight: Star Trek

From its humble beginnings as a niche cult television series, Star Trek has continuously reinvented itself for new generations of audiences while staying rooted in a hopeful vision of humanity’s future. Across more than 60 years of television and film, the franchise has endured because it presents optimism as resilience — the core belief that even in the face of war, catastrophe, and the unknown, humanity can grow through cooperation, curiosity, and compassion.

How Do Fans Feel About the Star Trek Brand?

Although Hollywood built the franchise, the Trekkies define it, and we have data to prove it. With a healthy +20 point net favorability across 1.2 million voters, Star Trek consistently dominates rankings that celebrate sci-fi. It currently holding the #2 spots on both The Best Science Fiction Franchises Of All Time (50k votes) and The Very Best TV Franchises (4k votes).

Trekkies don't just consume the content, they catalog it. From debating the The Coolest Star Trek Starships to recounting Every Time Picard Said 'Make It So,' (Ranked By How Well They Made It So), Ranker captures the exacting details fans love about the franchise.

As viewers anticipate Paramount’s release of the penultimate fourth season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds this July, fans will once again be enjoying (and fiercely debating) the latest installment. Our extensive aggregate of fan voting and rankings reveals exactly which storylines, characters, and eras resonate with fans and solidify the franchise’s success.

What Do Fans of Star Trek Also Like?

With multiple generations of fans voting on their favorite films and series spanning the last 60 years, Ranker has unique insight into the fascinating audience correlations across films, TV shows, and games. Ranker leverages these exact patterns to build data-driven campaign strategies, allowing brands to connect with highly targeted demographics and expand their reach without sacrificing precision.

Movies

As you might expect, Star Trek fans gravitate heavily toward intellectual sci-fi and retro-futurism. Ranker Insights shows us that Star Trek stans are 4x more likely to love dystopian masterpieces like Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey, alongside the modern hits Dune and Dune: Part Two. Interestingly, these fans have a higher affinity for the Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor franchises over Star Wars.

They’re also 4x more likely to enjoy high-octane action films like The Fall Guy, Top Gun: Maverick, and the James Bond franchise—likely appealing to the same love for adventure and tension found on the bridge of the Enterprise. Surprisingly, they’re also 3x more likely to indulge in the ultimate cult fantasy-adventure, The Princess Bride, trading space exploration for sharp, satirical wit.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds / Paramount Global

TV Shows

Within the television landscape, Star Trek fans aren't just watching sci-fi; they are 4x more likely to enjoy tight, procedural thrillers like Jack Ryan and Sherlock. The franchise’s reach into younger audiences is also evident, with fans being 3x more likely to binge Stranger Things. When it comes to a galaxy far, far away, these fans tend to have a higher affinity for Star Wars television series compared to the films, particularly favoring Ahsoka.

Video Games

In the gaming sector, the Star Trek audience favors strategy, moral choice, and deep narrative design. They are 2x more likely to dive into sprawling space role-playing games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, where player choice dictates the story. They also heavily favor the deeply cinematic world-building of the Mass Effect series and The Last of Us.

The Verdict

Ultimately, Ranker’s data reveals a fandom that craves intellectual world-building, insatiable curiosity, sharp wit, and stories about rich characters placed in extraordinary circumstances. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds succeeds precisely because it balances these classic episodic plots, playful twists, and compelling character dynamics. As the series heads into Season 4, its ability to successfully bridge these generations proves that Star Trek isn’t just surviving the modern streaming age—it is actively setting the standard for the franchise's future.

Target Smarter. Reach More Fans with Ranker.

These insights are powered by Ranker Insights, which transforms over 1.5 billion fan votes into actionable psychographics across numerous categories like movies, gaming and TV. As a comScore Top 50 Digital Media Property , Ranker offers a variety of ad solutions, from high-impact digital and social campaigns to syndicated and custom audiences available on major DSPs including The Trade Desk, Lotame, TransUnion and MadHive. Whether you need to reach elusive streaming fans or push custom first-party segments to your DSP, our deterministic data ensures scalable, future-proof results.

To see how we can customize a strategy for your business, Contact Us or visit business.ranker.com.