culture

Rani Molla11/12/24

X just had its biggest exodus to date

X, formerly known as Twitter, just had the highest number of people in the US deactivate their accounts since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022 and people started threatening to leave it, new data from digital market-intelligence company Similarweb shows.

Some 115,000 users in the US deactivated their accounts Wednesday, the day after the presidential election. Some users voiced discontent with the social-media site over owner Musk’s support of Donald Trump. (Similarweb doesn’t have data for deactivations through the mobile app.)

“It’s still small when it comes to the scale of the entire service, but it does show that people aren’t bluffing,” David Carr, a Similarweb spokesman, told Sherwood.

Many of those users are flocking to alternative sites like Meta’s Threads and Bluesky. Bluesky alone gained 700,000 new users in the week after the election.

At the same time, X saw the highest traffic of the year that same day, with US web traffic on Wednesday hitting 46.5 million visits, or nearly 40% higher than the average for the past few months. In the days following, traffic on X has returned to recent norms.

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Big winners at the Golden Globes could indicate this week’s Oscar noms

With the Academy’s nominations voting opening today, the results of the Globes might signal the direction of certain Oscars categories (statistically speaking).

Chalamet with award at the Golden Globes

culture

Millie Giles1/9/26

Tamagotchis are making a comeback, 3 decades after first becoming a global toy craze

If you were a ’90s kid, you might remember the craze around little egg-shaped toys with an 8-bit digital screen, displaying an ambiguous pet-thing that demanded food and attention.

Now, on the brand’s 30th anniversary, the Tamagotchi — the Japanese pocket-sized virtual pet that launched a thousand cute and needy tech companions, from Nintendogs to fluffy AI robots — is making a minor comeback.

Tamagotchi Google Search Trends — Sherwood News

Looking at Google Trends data, searches for “tamagotchi” spiked in December in the US, up around 80% from just six months prior, with the most search volume in almost two decades.

While the toys are popular Christmas gifts, with interest volumes often seen ticking up in December each year, the sudden interest might also have something to do with the birthday celebrations that creator and manufacturer Bandai Namco are putting on, including a Tokyo exhibition that opened on Wednesday.

Game, set, hatch

More broadly, modern consumers appear to have a growing obsession with collectibles (see: Labubu mania), as well as a taste for nostalgia (see: the iPod revival, among many other trends).

But, having finally hit 100 million sales in September last year, the brand itself is probably just glad to exist, giving a whole new generation the chance to experience the profound grief of an unexpected Tamagotchi death.

PANDORA’S BOX OFFICE

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” surpasses $1 billion globally after 18 days

James Cameron is now the first director in history to have four consecutive movies gross over a billion dollars.

Max Knoblauch12/23/25

Disney could be well on its way to its third billion-dollar film of the year following a $345 million opening weekend for “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” The film’s opening gross puts the “Avatar” franchise’s total box office earnings at $5.6 billion — and counting.

The latest film, the second “Avatar” entry under Disney’s tent, earned about 75% of its total box office gross internationally — in line with previous movies in the (as of now) trilogy. Domestically, this one earned $88 million, falling short of expectations.

“Fire and Ash” was the widest Imax release ever, debuting on 1,703 screens globally and earning $43.6 million through the format. The $345 million “Fire and Ash” opening weekend was the second-highest of 2025, behind Disney’s “Zootopia 2,” which recently passed the $1 billion mark, globally.

Year to date, Disney has earned $5.8 billion globally at the box office.

Jake Paul v Anthony Joshua - Fighter Showcase & Open Workout

Three reasons Netflix needs Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO

It’s tough out there for the top paid streamer.

Rani Molla12/22/25

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