Fanatical (company)

Fanatical

Industry	Video games, electronic commerce, Digital distribution
Founded	2012; 13 years ago (2012)
Headquarters	Rugeley, Staffordshire, England[1]
Parent	Fandom, Inc.
Website	www.fanatical.com

Fanatical (formerly Bundle Stars) is a United Kingdom-based online video game retailer. It has sold more than 80 million officially authorised game keys to over two million customers globally.[2]

Fanatical has a catalogue of over 8,000 games from more than 1,000 game publishers and developers.[3] These include direct partnerships with Bethesda Softworks, SEGA, THQ Nordic, Deep Silver, Kalypso Media and Codemasters as well as smaller independent developers.[4][5]

History

Fanatical was originally launched in 2012 by Focus Multimedia Limited, under the name Bundle Stars. As Bundle Stars, it curated collections of games for the Steam platform at significantly discounted prices.

Bundle Stars relaunched as Fanatical on November 1, 2017, expanding both its product offering and its team. As a digital distribution service, Fanatical offers games, bundles and downloadable content (DLC) for Windows PC, Mac and Linux platforms as well as eBooks, eLearning courses and a variety of other digitally delivered products.

In February 2021, Focus Multimedia Limited was acquired by Fandom, Inc.[6][7]

References

1. "Ukie | Supporting the UK's games and interactive entertainment industry". Archived from the original on 2017-03-19. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
2. Batchelor, James (26 October 2017). "Bundle Stars Rebranding as Fanatical". Gamesindustry.biz. Gamer Network Limited. Archived from the original on 20 February 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
3. Bodnarescu, Florin (26 October 2017). "Bundle Stars Becomes Fanatical". Neowin. Neowin LLC. Archived from the original on 15 February 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
4. Parfitt, Ben (2 November 2017). "Bundle Stars Rebrands as Fanatical". MCV. NewBay Media LLC. Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
5. "Sega Approved Digital Partners". 8 June 2017. Archived from the original on 14 February 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
6. "Fanatical". www.fanatical.com. Archived from the original on 2021-05-07. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
7. "Fandom acquires digital games marketplace Fanatical". 24 February 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-05-07. Retrieved 2021-05-07.