As San Diego braces itself for an influx of costume-clad pop culture fanatics, we tracked the data leading up to the huge event.

While non-fans may not be familiar with the convention, San Diego’s Comic-Con is a major event on the calendar for thousands of people.

As well as merchandise and cosplay there are exclusive sneak peaks into the future of a whole bunch of popular series’ and franchises, as well as celebrity appearances and signings.

Yesterday, which included the conference’s “preview night”, saw 100,000 mentions of the conference.

As thousands take to social media to share their excitement and experiences, we took a look at the hype and what Comic-Con means to fans.

Preview night

Wednesday saw preview night, where four day pass holders get a first look at all the goodies on the show floor.

Mentions peaked at 6pm PDT as keen Comic-Con goers packed out the busy space.

The topics discussed on Wednesday saw the Star Trek Beyond premiere get big mentions, as well as shedding light on what fans are most excited about for the rest of the convention.

@SQEX_MD_MA‘s close-up merchandise tweets were so popular yesterday that they were the second most retweeted account on Twitter in regard to the convention (with @comic_con being at the top of the list).

Our Black & White Play Arts KAI Version of @BatmanvSuperman Batman is an #SDCC2016 Limited Edition! pic.twitter.com/hAxAeZNwbU — Square Enix MD NA (@SQEX_MD_NA) July 21, 2016

A very social experience

While there are comic-con events all over the world, San Diego’s is undoubtably the mother of all fan conventions.

It’s one that the world watches in keen anticipation for the announcements and shenanigans.

Looking at geo-tagged mentions of “comic-con” in July we found a number of mentions of European comic conventions across the pond, but most of them referred to their excitement for San Diego’s.

Fast selling tickets and travel costs often hold potential visitors back, but many fans make epic voyages to get to the event.

What remains is a duty for Comic-Con goers to post about their experiences online so everyone else gets a bit of the action. It’s something brands are particularly enthusiastic about, and these have been some of the top mentioned tweeters so far.

#GearsofWar4 is coming to #SDCC2016 in style! For the next 5 hours on the hour, we’ll show you brand new Gears merchandise coming this year! — Gears of War (@GearsofWar) July 20, 2016

coming to comic-con? this is EVERYthing you need to know: https://t.co/Xs2u5H2pfq — TEEN WOLF (@MTVteenwolf) July 20, 2016

The #TWDSDCC panel is this Friday at 1pm PT. Follow along for the latest Comic Con news about #TWD Season 7. pic.twitter.com/MgkNtkqpBG — The Walking Dead AMC (@WalkingDead_AMC) July 20, 2016

Meanwhile, Comic-Con is time to shine for many YouTubers and pop culture influencers.

Youtuber Markiplier and fansite JoBlo.com were in the top 15 most-mentioned tweeters surrounding SDCC yesterday, ahead of @startrekmovie, @kingdomhearts and @callofduty.

While brands are owning much of the conversation, it may go a little far to suggest that corporate marketing has killed “good, honest fandom” at the convention.

We tracked around 5,000 mentions of cosplay in the lead-up and the predominance of user generated SDCC content flying around the internet over the next couple of days goes some way to quell worries that fandoms are being hijacked by the companies with the big money.

If brands hope to get recognized by the outside audience, an impressive visual display that gets attendees excited enough to tweet about it seems to be the way to go.

Speaking of big visual stunts that prove popular online, a huge bronze statue of Captain America is featured on the show floor, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the franchise.

Happy 75th birthday Captain America.

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