Apple TV’s new sci-fi drama Pluribus has the glossy rollout, the prestige angle, and the kind of marketing push designed to dominate conversations. But if you look at where audiences are actually gathering, Pluribus is not the one commanding the biggest conversations online. That honor belongs to Hazbin Hotel, a chaotic, quick-binge animated series that is soaring past Pluribus on Reddit’s Top TV Shows chart. The data points to a story that looks very different from the one Apple’s marketing suggests. Viewers aren’t talking about the high-concept newcomer, they are talking about Hell’s favorite hotel. Reddit’s Top TV Chart Tells a Different Story Than Apple’s Marketing Prestige sci-fi often dominates early discourse, especially when a platform positions a title as its next flagship. Pluribus is clearly designed to fill that role, yet Reddit’s current momentum chart shows that the real organic breakout is happening elsewhere. This week, Hazbin Hotel sits at #1 with the largest subreddit growth on the entire TV list. More than 2, 700 new members joined within seven days, a huge surge that reflects not just discovery but rapid conversion into active fandom. By comparison, Pluribus lands at fourth place with a much smaller bump. The difference between the two trajectories is striking. Pluribus is benefitting from standard streaming visibility, but the real heat is concentrated on a show that isn’t backed by a prestige drama campaign. Instead, fans are pulling newcomers in, sharing clips, debating arcs, and analyzing character choices at a pace that far outstrips the conversation around Apple’s big-budget sci-fi series. That gap reveals something important. Organic buzz is not following the marketing money. It is chasing the show people feel compelled to talk about, and right now, that show is Hazbin Hotel. ‘Hazbin Hotel’s Growth Outpaces ‘Pluribus’ and Legacy Giants The current Reddit rankings don’t just show Hazbin outrunning Pluribus. They show it pulling ahead of some of the most entrenched fandoms on television. In recent weeks, Hazbin’s subreddit growth has surpassed long-standing pillars like Stranger Things and Stargate SG-1. These are shows with years of cultural weight and deeply established communities, and for Hazbin to eclipse them in momentum speaks to the intensity and immediacy of its pull. Hazbin’s subreddit is not merely gaining passive followers. It is accelerating. Reddit’s data reveals that members aren’t joining in slow, predictable waves. They are arriving in spikes, reacting to story beats, character moments, and new announcements with the kind of urgency that defines major fandom surges. For a quick-binge animated series to top that list is significant because it means Hazbin is not only attracting viewers, it is inspiring participation. People want to talk about it the moment they finish the series, which just wrapped up its second season this week. Meanwhile, Pluribus still hasn’t hit that cultural ignition point. It is doing what many prestige sci-fi shows do in the early weeks. It is building an audience slowly and steadily. There is nothing wrong with that, but steady isn’t a breakout. Reddit’s momentum indicators are some of the clearest barometers of genuine engagement, and those indicators show that the story of the moment is happening in Hell, not in Apple’s carefully curated sci-fi landscape. A Quick Binge With Massive Word-of-Mouth Power What makes Hazbin’s surge so intriguing is that it is fundamentally a word-of-mouth phenomenon. This is not a series being endlessly promoted with trailers, cast interviews, behind-the-scenes clips, and a massive rollout campaign. Hazbin’s visibility largely comes from viewers pushing each other into the show. They post about the music, the character arcs, the emotional whiplash, the visual style, and the surprising depth beneath the chaos. They recommend it with the enthusiasm of someone handing a friend their new favorite obsession. Hazbin is also built for quick-binge consumption. Its structure encourages the “just one more” spiral, where viewers finish the final episode and immediately search for discussion threads. That immediacy is powerful. Word-of-mouth grows most rapidly when viewers feel an emotional high and an urgent need to process it with others. Hazbin’s pacing delivers that rush repeatedly, and the subreddit’s explosive growth shows exactly how effective that structure is at generating community engagement. This is where Hazbin pulls ahead of Pluribus in a way that feels meaningful. Pluribus is a slow-burn drama built on mystery and world-building. Its strengths lie in atmosphere and detail. Those qualities often lead to sustained conversation over time, but they rarely produce the immediate “drop everything and join the subreddit” momentum that characterizes an overnight hit. Hazbin, by contrast, feels engineered for conversation. It is loud, fast, emotional, meme-ready, and dripping with stylistic choices that invite reaction. Reddit Momentum Matters More Than Prestige Branding Reddit is not the only way to measure cultural traction, but it is one of the clearest mirrors of what viewers are talking about without marketing influence. When a series climbs to the top of Reddit’s TV charts, it means the conversation is happening because people are choosing to have it, not because a platform is pushing it. Hazbin’s position at #1 represents a shift in how viewers are discovering shows in 2025. A title with a cult reputation can now overpower a major platform release if it delivers something emotionally potent enough to spark conversation on its own. The split between Hazbin and Pluribus shows exactly that dynamic in action. Apple can spotlight a series across its ecosystem, but it cannot manufacture the kind of community frenzy that Hazbin is achieving.
https://collider.com/hazbin-hotel-series-reddit-threads/