Best Fan-made Charts of 2025

Matt Baker presented the sixth annual UsefulCharts fan-made chart awards, recognizing work shared on Reddit's r/UsefulCharts community. The 2025 edition replaced the usual prize of printing two winning charts as posters with 29 individual awards for 29 contributors. Each recipient would receive a $30 gift certificate redeemable at UsefulCharts.com.

The Best Religion Chart examined the eight kings mentioned in Revelation 17. The winning chart interpreted the biblical passage about five fallen kings, one reigning king, one forthcoming king, and an eighth king associated with the beast through the succession of Roman emperors.

The Revelation chart identified Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero as the five fallen kings. Under the interpretation Baker presented, Revelation was written during Domitian's reign but set during Vespasian's. Vespasian was therefore the king who currently reigned within the narrative.

Titus was identified as Revelation's seventh king, while Domitian was presented as the eighth. Titus's relatively short reign was linked to the prediction that the seventh king would remain only briefly. Domitian was associated with the belief in Nero's return, explaining the reference to a beast who once existed, ceased to exist, and returned.

The winning Political Parties Timeline examined Venezuela's increasingly complicated political history. Baker selected it partly because Venezuela had recently attracted attention following American military attacks. The chart traced changes in the country's political leadership and competing claims to authority.

Hugo Chávez's rise to power in 1999 was presented as a turning point in Venezuela's democracy. Baker characterized Chávez's political movement as authoritarian and socialist, arguing that democratic institutions gradually weakened under his leadership.

Nicolás Maduro succeeded Chávez following his death in 2013. The chart subsequently showed the political crisis of 2019, when opposition politician Juan Guaidó was declared acting president during the opposition's Operation Freedom initiative.

Venezuela experienced competing claims to presidential authority for several years after 2019. The chart illustrated how Maduro's continued control of the government and Guaidó's rival claim created an unusually complicated political situation.

The Best Linguistics Chart traced the historical development of writing systems. Rather than simply listing alphabets and scripts, it connected modern writing systems to earlier forms, allowing readers to follow their development across different civilizations.

Arabic and Hebrew were traced through Aramaic to older writing traditions. The chart showed Arabic developing through Nabataean, while Hebrew also descended from Aramaic. Aramaic itself was connected to Phoenician.

Phoenician was presented as an ancestor of the Greek alphabet, which subsequently influenced Latin. The chart followed this lineage to the Latin alphabet used to write modern English.

The chart also explored a possible relationship between Aramaic and India's Brahmi script. Brahmi was identified as an ancestor of numerous writing systems across South and Southeast Asia, including Devanagari in India and Baybayin in the Philippines. The possible Aramaic influence was presented as uncertain rather than established.

The winning Shakespeare family tree connected characters from multiple plays into one extended genealogy. Its distinctive feature was the combination of mythological figures, legendary rulers, fictional characters, and historical monarchs who appear in Shakespeare's works.

Hippolyta from A Midsummer Night's Dream was among the mythological figures incorporated into the Shakespeare genealogy. Through legendary and pseudohistorical traditions, the chart connected such characters to figures including King Lear and Prince Hamlet.

The Shakespeare genealogy eventually reached historical rulers including Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and King John. These connections relied partly on legendary accounts rather than treating every fictional relationship as established history.

The Best Personal Family Tree demonstrated how one contributor was related to several American presidents. Baker praised its clear design and easily followed genealogical lines.

The presidential genealogy traced a connection to Abraham Lincoln through the contributor's paternal ancestry. A separate maternal line established a connection to Franklin D. Roosevelt. The chart also included Mr. Beat, a history-focused YouTube creator.

The Best Pop Culture Chart organized the fictional chronology of the Star Trek franchise. It placed the crews and events of different television series and films on a common timeline, distinguishing their fictional chronology from the order in which the productions were released.

Star Trek: Enterprise begins in 2151 despite being produced after the original television series. By comparison, the original Star Trek series begins in 2265 within the fictional universe.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds begins around 2259, shortly before the original series. The chart positioned its events during Christopher Pike's command of the Enterprise, before James T. Kirk became captain.

The Best General History Chart mapped the successor states of the Mongol Empire. Although presented as a family tree of Mongol nations, Baker explained that it was more accurately a political genealogy showing how states emerged from earlier empires and kingdoms.

The chart traced the political ancestry of modern Uzbekistan through several historical states. It connected Uzbekistan to the Soviet Union, the Emirate of Bukhara, the Khanate of Bukhara, and the Uzbek Khanate.

The Uzbek Khanate was linked to the Golden Horde, one of the four principal divisions of the Mongol Empire. This connection illustrated how modern Central Asian political boundaries emerged from successive transformations of Mongol territories.

The Best Ancient History Chart covered the rulers of Elam, Babylon, and Assyria. Its design combined geographical maps, a color-coded royal genealogy, and archaeological illustrations around the edges.

The ancient Mesopotamian chart emphasized historically accurate transliterations of royal names. Rather than consistently using familiar English approximations, the creator adopted forms closer to ancient-language transliterations.

Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, and Shalmaneser V were among the Assyrian rulers highlighted. Baker pointed out that all three appear in the Bible, illustrating the overlap between ancient Near Eastern history and biblical accounts.

The Best Royal Family Tree examined the Hispanic monarchy following the Reconquista. The chart followed dynastic connections between ruling families and showed how royal territories merged, separated, and passed between different branches.

The Hispanic monarchy chart gave particular attention to the closely interconnected Habsburg dynasty. Its genealogical structure exposed the extensive intermarriage and overlapping family relationships associated with the dynasty.

The Hispanic genealogy used different shapes to distinguish monarchs from other family members. Reigning monarchs appeared in squares, while spouses and other royals appeared in circles. Colors distinguished political territories and helped readers follow dynastic changes.

Two charts shared an award for closely reproducing the established UsefulCharts visual style. Baker said both designs resembled charts he could have produced himself.

The extended Greek monarchs family tree was one of the joint winners. Baker highlighted its carefully selected portraits, near-perfect imitation of his design conventions, and inclusion of royal names in Greek.

The Visigothic kings family tree shared the same award. Baker considered it stylistically compatible with his existing Roman emperors genealogy, which already included the Ostrogoths but not the Visigoths.

The Malietoa dynasty genealogy received recognition for covering royal history outside Europe. Baker observed that European royal families dominate submissions to the community and welcomed a chart exploring Samoa's chiefly traditions.

The Malietoa dynasty was identified as the oldest of Samoa's four principal chiefly families. Baker described these families as playing a central role in Samoa's traditional leadership and modern head-of-state arrangements.

The title Malietoa was explained as meaning "great warrior." According to the account presented, it was first awarded to a leader who helped Samoa achieve independence from Tongan domination during the 1300s.

The earliest descendants of the first Malietoa ruled Samoa before other chiefly lineages gained prominence. Baker described a subsequent shift toward descendants of the influential historical ruler Queen Salamasina.

Members of the Malietoa family again exercised kingship during the colonial period. This phase of royal authority ended when the monarchy was abolished in 1899.

The Malietoa genealogy extended into Samoa's modern political leadership. It included Samoa's first prime minister and his daughter, who served as prime minister from 2021 until September 2025, demonstrating the family's continuing political importance.

A genealogy of the princes and kings of Wallachia and Romania was recognized as an example of a continuously improved community project. Baker observed that some contributors repeatedly refine and expand their charts after their initial publication.

Vlad the Impaler was among the best-known figures on the Wallachian and Romanian genealogy. The chart included his dynastic connections, which are associated with the historical origins of the Dracula legend.

The Romanian chart also included the modern Hohenzollern royal dynasty. It traced the ruling family associated with Romania's monarchy between 1866 and 1947, connecting medieval princely traditions with the modern royal period.

The Most Creative Chart represented Swedish monarchs entirely through historical coins. Covering the period from Gustav Vasa to the present, it used actual coins minted during individual reigns instead of conventional portraits.

The Swedish coin genealogy combined numismatic collecting with dynastic history. Each monarch was represented by an object from the period of their rule, making the chart both a historical timeline and a collection of artifacts. Baker suggested its design could eventually suit a museum exhibition.

An alternative-history genealogy imagined Neil Armstrong becoming emperor of the Moon. The fictional premise provided a way to examine Armstrong's actual family relationships and consider a hypothetical lunar succession.

Neil Armstrong married twice and had a stepdaughter who married an American ambassador. Baker identified these details as discoveries he made while examining the chart, having previously known relatively little about Armstrong's extended family.

Armstrong's daughter died from a brain tumor at the age of two in the early 1960s. Her death occurred before Armstrong's historic Moon landing in 1969.

Armstrong's two surviving children are his sons Eric and Mark. The chart also included several grandchildren, extending the hypothetical lunar dynasty into later generations.

A detailed chart of motion-picture apparatuses explored the historical development of film technology. It connected early mechanical and photographic inventions through lines showing technological relationships and influence.

One early motion-picture invention occupied a central position in the technological genealogy. Numerous later devices descended from it, including a camera identified through Wikipedia as a principal camera used during the early silent-film era. Baker acknowledged that he lacked detailed expertise in the equipment represented.

The Best Map examined political and administrative subdivisions below the American state level. It distinguished counties, cities, census county divisions, and minor civil divisions, demonstrating that administrative geography varies considerably between states.

Census county divisions cover extensive areas of the United States, particularly in the West and Southeast. Baker explained that these divisions are used to organize territory within counties for census purposes, including areas outside incorporated cities.

Many eastern states and Alaska use minor civil divisions instead of census county divisions. These administrative units take several forms, with civil townships among the most common.

The American subdivisions map distinguished different administrative arrangements through color. Green represented extensive census county division areas, red identified cities, and light blue marked regions associated with civil townships.

A hand-drawn circular genealogy illustrated where a contributor's ancestors were born. Although produced digitally, Baker considered it handmade because the creator used a pen rather than a mouse.

The circular ancestry chart combined geographical origins with ethnic classifications. Colors distinguished ancestral ethnic backgrounds, while the arrangement showed the birthplaces of successive generations.

The ancestry chart identified connections to poet Anne Bradstreet and a passenger aboard the Mayflower. These highlighted individuals provided recognizable historical reference points within the contributor's wider family history.

A chart of the Dukes of Westminster formed part of a larger project documenting British dukedoms. Its creator was attempting to produce genealogical charts for every dukedom in the United Kingdom, using a consistent visual format.

A contributor submitted a family tree documenting the ancestry of their chickens. The chart applied conventional genealogical methods to animal breeding rather than human families.

The chicken genealogy revealed extensive interrelated breeding lines. Baker jokingly compared the degree of interconnection to the Habsburg dynasty, whose family tree is famous for repeated marriages between relatives.

A chart calculated the highest possible regnal number a person could receive under different European monarchies. It compared historical rulers' names to determine which ordinal number a hypothetical future monarch would inherit.

A new Scottish king named David would be David III under the chart's system. A new Swedish king named Eric would be Eric XV. Someone whose name had never been used by the relevant monarchy would become the first ruler of that name.

Baker identified a missing entry involving his own name, Matthew. He pointed to Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and Holy Roman Emperor Matthias as historical precedents, arguing that he could hypothetically become Matthew II in Hungary or a restored Holy Roman Empire.

A genealogy examining Baker's connections to famous people highlighted an important ancestor who migrated from America to Nova Scotia. Baker said his work producing genealogy videos had helped him recognize this woman's significance within his family tree.

The American-born ancestor provides Baker with a particularly useful connection to American genealogical lines. Because most of his other ancestors came from different backgrounds, he said that attempts to trace relationships to Americans frequently pass through this woman.

Baker identified geographically unusual ancestors as especially valuable genealogical research leads. A person who migrated from a region unlike the family's usual ancestral origins can create connections to otherwise distant historical figures, royal houses, or branches of an extended family.

A comprehensive timeline of Southeast Asian political history received recognition despite being submitted after the deadline. Baker made an exception because he considered the chart unusually strong.

The Southeast Asian timeline covered Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and additional territories. It allowed readers to trace political developments across the region as far back as approximately 500 CE.

Baker suggested that the Southeast Asian political timeline had potential commercial value. He encouraged its creator to investigate local printing and possible sales to audiences in Southeast Asia, where its regional focus might create demand.

Four especially large charts received special "Biggly" awards. Baker explained that the community uses this informal distinction for unusually ambitious, oversized charts that cover extensive historical or genealogical material.

The first Biggly recognized a genealogy of royal families from Homeric Greece. It organized its material into the Bronze Age, Iron Age, and classical antiquity, helping readers understand the chronological separation between legendary and historically documented rulers.

The Homeric Greek genealogy connected mythical heroes Perseus and Heracles to later Spartan kings. These ancestral relationships reflected traditional claims that historical royal houses descended from legendary figures.

The chart's separation of the Bronze and Iron Ages highlighted the Greek Dark Age. Baker considered this a useful way of showing the historical discontinuity between the civilizations associated with Homeric legend and later Greek kingdoms.

The second Biggly went to an extensive Arab royal and tribal genealogy. It began with legendary and biblical ancestors before following lineages through Muhammad and subsequent Arab ruling families.

The Arab genealogy connected Muhammad's family to several present-day Middle Eastern and North African monarchies. The chart included the royal traditions of Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and other states.

The third Biggly recognized another genealogy combining mythology and historical monarchy, beginning with Norse gods. It traced supposed ancestral connections from divine figures into the families of historical rulers.

The Norse genealogy illustrated how royal houses have claimed descent from different religious and mythological ancestors. Baker contrasted traditions tracing royal ancestry to the biblical Adam with those tracing it to Odin.

The fourth Biggly went to MF Jervy, a moderator of the UsefulCharts community. Baker described Jervy as a prolific contributor and considered the winning chart, Monarchs of Europe, possibly his largest royal genealogy.

MF Jervy's European monarchy chart covered historical ground similar to Baker's combined East–West genealogy. Its value lay partly in presenting overlapping dynastic history through Jervy's own visual style rather than copying the standard UsefulCharts format.

The two final awards recognized Designers of the Year rather than individual charts. Baker treated these as the most prestigious distinctions of the event because they rewarded sustained design quality and replaced the customary selection of two charts for poster printing.

The first Designer of the Year award went to Goose53. Baker praised the contributor's distinctive visual style, saying he could recognize the creator's work almost immediately.

Goose53 produced a detailed chart showing the principal participants in the Hundred Years' War. It included the kings of England and France alongside numerous knights, nobles, and other rulers who participated in the conflict.

The Hundred Years' War chart also documented lesser-known heraldic symbols. Coats of arms associated with individual participants appeared across the top, adding information about medieval noble identities and affiliations.

Goose53's historical charts examined alternative ways of dividing centuries of Anglo-French conflict. Baker explained that historians sometimes use the idea of multiple "Hundred Years' Wars" to describe prolonged periods of rivalry between England and France.

One interpretation treats the Angevin Empire period as an earlier Hundred Years' War. Under this framework, the conventional Hundred Years' War becomes the second major phase of extended Anglo-French confrontation.

Another interpretation identifies the conventional Hundred Years' War as the first and the conflicts between 1688 and 1815 as a second. This later period involved England or Britain and France competing as colonial powers for territory, influence, and global supremacy.

The second Designer of the Year award went to Pickled Pigeon. Baker recognized the contributor both for the popularity of individual charts and for the ability to produce polished work in several substantially different visual styles.

Pickled Pigeon's etymology chart explaining the word "vlogger" was the most upvoted chart of 2025. It traced the development of the modern internet term through the earlier words and linguistic components from which it originated.

"Vlogger" derives from "vlog," a combination of "video" and "blog." The chart demonstrated how a relatively recent word can contain linguistic elements with histories extending back thousands of years.

The word "video" was traced to an ancient Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to see." This connection linked modern audiovisual terminology to a much older family of words associated with sight and perception.

"Blog" originated as a shortening of "weblog," formed from "web" and "log." The chart further separated these terms into their historical components, tracing the development of familiar internet vocabulary.

The "web" in "weblog" refers to the World Wide Web. Pickled Pigeon's chart traced the component words still further, showing how modern technological expressions are constructed from much older vocabulary.

The word "world" was connected to a Proto-Germanic compound involving human beings and the span of a lifetime. Baker explained the underlying concept as the entirety of what a person experiences during life.

The word "log" was traced through "logbook" to the original meaning of a fallen tree. The etymology chart connected this older meaning to a Proto-Indo-European verb associated with lying down.

Pickled Pigeon's etymology chart showed how modern words preserve multiple layers of linguistic history. Baker particularly valued its ability to make ancient word origins understandable through a clean, compact visual structure.

Pickled Pigeon also produced a genealogical chart of Norse monarchs. Baker highlighted it as an example of the contributor's ability to create visually attractive royal family trees rather than specializing exclusively in linguistic diagrams.

Another Pickled Pigeon chart mapped the United Kingdom's Starmer ministry. Baker considered its layout professional enough for publication in a major magazine, demonstrating the creator's ability to design contemporary political charts as well as historical genealogies.

The Designer of the Year selections reflected two different approaches to excellence. Goose53 stood out for a consistent and recognizable visual identity, while Pickled Pigeon stood out for versatility across etymology, royal genealogy, and modern government organization.

The awards demonstrated the breadth of subjects being explored by the UsefulCharts community in 2025. Winning contributions covered biblical interpretation, political history, writing systems, fictional genealogies, television chronology, royal succession, archaeology, administrative geography, technological inventions, linguistics, and personal ancestry.

Several winning charts combined traditionally separate fields of knowledge. Examples included Shakespearean characters connected through historical genealogy, monarchs represented with historical coins, film cameras organized by technological descent, and modern internet vocabulary traced to ancient language roots.

Genealogical charts formed a substantial portion of the winning submissions, but their subjects extended beyond conventional royal families. The collection included American presidential connections, personal ancestry, fictional characters, chickens, an astronaut's descendants, mythological gods, and modern political leaders.

The winning charts frequently used visual design to explain relationships that would be difficult to reconstruct from ordinary prose. Color coding, chronological arrangements, connecting lines, geographical maps, family-tree structures, heraldic symbols, portraits, and historical objects were used to distinguish ancestry, political succession, technological influence, and cultural development.

The awards also recognized projects that expanded or improved existing historical material rather than introducing entirely new subjects. Examples included the revised Wallachian and Romanian genealogy, the extended Greek monarchs family tree, the Dukes of Westminster series, and Jervy's alternative presentation of European royal history.

All 29 award recipients were invited to claim their $30 gift certificates through Reddit. Winners were instructed to contact Baker using the u/UsefulCharts account, after which he would provide a certificate code redeemable through the UsefulCharts website.