On April 15, 2010, we launched a universal quest for the Most Awesomest Thing Ever. Three weeks later, over 40,000 hours of time online spent voting for contenders confirmed that, in addition to being awesome, this quest is addictive.
The Most Awesomest began as a lunchtime conversation comparing random things. We turned this amusing discussion into an interactive one, choosing hundreds of candidates from a curated list of people, places and objects on Wikipedia—ninjas, naps, Mount Everest, etc. From there, we opened up the battle to everyone—pitting two things against each other and letting you vote on which is more awesome. By tracking individual Win-Loss records, we’re ranking each to determine the 100 Awesomest (and 93 Inadequatest).
Within four hours of launch, the Most Awesomest garnered 264,000 votes—more than 18 per second. Within the first month, it had more than 320,000 unique visitors and 6.7 million page views. Press coverage from ABC News, Time, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, PSFK, G4’s Attack of the Show, Entertainment Weekly, and others fueled the awesomeness. It has since gained hundreds of followers on twitter and thousands of submissions for additional contenders.
What started out as entertaining and absurd turned out to be hypnotic. Why? It’s easy to play, nostalgic, rich in pop culture (and over the top graphics and sound effects), and is somewhat existential. And of course, it’s never ending.
On that note, we’re developing ideas for how to extend the Most Awesomest and have been approached by interested TV studios. For now, it remains a collective and timely index of awesomeness.