The Viral Formula: What Faith-Based Entertainment Can Learn from the World’s Biggest Shows

By Kunle Falodun, Co-founder, House of Faith

I have always loved great stories.

Growing up, I watched everything I could get my hands on; American westerns, Indian epics, Chinese martial arts films, British dramas and so on. I grew up admiring characters played by Clint Eastwood, Chuck Norris, Michael Caine, Bruce Lee and Amitabh Bachchan and many more. They came from different cultures, spoke different languages and represented different genres, but they all had one thing in common; they told unforgettable stories.

Those stories made us laugh, cry, hope, dream and believe. Long before streaming platforms existed, they travelled across borders because great storytelling always does. That love for storytelling is one of the reasons we started FaithStream.

Our vision has never been simply to build another streaming platform for Christians. We wanted to create a home for stories that are family-friendly, inspirational and rooted in timeless values stories that communicate the Gospel without sacrificing entertainment. Stories that believers would be proud to watch and that anyone, regardless of their faith, could genuinely enjoy.

For many years, faith-based entertainment was often viewed as a niche category, well-intentioned, but rarely compared with the very best the industry had to offer. Thankfully, that is beginning to change.

The Chosen has become a global phenomenon, reaching millions of viewers around the world. House of David has demonstrated that audiences are hungry for premium biblical storytelling and has now been renewed for a third season at Prime Video. These productions have shown that faith-based stories can stand shoulder to shoulder with mainstream entertainment in both quality and cultural impact.

What excites me even more is what this means for the next generation. Young people deserve heroes whose courage is inspired by conviction and whose strength is rooted in character with stories that point towards hope rather than despair. They shouldn’t have to choose between compelling entertainment and meaningful values.

At FaithStream, we hope to play our part in shaping that future. Very soon, we will release our first FaithStream Original, Love and Porridge, a Nigerian romantic comedy produced by Lord Tanner. It is a modest production with a modest budget, but for us it represents something much bigger. It is a small step towards the kind of entertainment we believe Africa is and ultimately the world needs more of.

Our ambition isn’t simply to produce Christian films. It is to help lead a revolution in storytelling and prove that faith-based entertainment can be emotionally engaging, beautifully crafted, commercially successful and culturally influential. Which brings me to a question I’ve been asking myself:

What will it take for faith-based entertainment to create the next global cultural phenomenon?

The kind of show captures the world’s imagination in the way Squid Game, Money Heist, Game of Thrones, The Chosen, or even regional successes like The Polygamist have done.

I don’t believe the answer lies in bigger marketing budgets; it begins with better stories with unforgettable characters. Stories with genuine emotional stakes that can start conversations around dinner tables, in offices and across social media.

Stories that people recommend not because they feel they should but because they simply cannot stop talking about them. The Gospel has never lacked power, perhaps our challenge is to match that power with storytelling that is equally bold, ambitious and world-class. I genuinely believe the greatest era of Faith-based entertainment is still ahead of us.

There is still a faith-based series waiting to become the world’s next cultural phenomenon; maybe it will come from Hollywood, Lagos, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Seoul or Rio De Janeiro, or somewhere no one is expecting.

But wherever it comes from, people won’t watch it because it’s labelled “Christian.” They will watch it because it’s an unforgettable story, and perhaps, through that story, they’ll encounter the greatest Story ever told.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

What do you think is the missing ingredient?

What will it take for faith-based entertainment to produce the next truly global cultural phenomenon?