Was Worldbuilding really that popular in the early 2000s ?

Hi, thanks for 300+ subs , couldn't be more grateful. <br><br>I have been lurking into the 2013-2015 archived threads, and many of them mention to have been inspired by a 2003 show called Carnivale that apparently went very deep into worldbuilding. Another example often mentioned is the Harry Potter series. I wasn't exactly 5 years old back then, but I don't remember any craze around Worldbuilding.<br><br>Then I read the Three-Body Problem, which was published in 2014, but that's when I read it. Honestly, it was my first encounter with *real* worldbuilding and I could grasp the complexity of a science fiction story like TBP.<br><br>I am genuinely wondering why is such a big fuss about worldbuilding in the 2000s. Was it really a golden age ?<br><br>Thank you for all the awards and kind words, they mean the world to me.<br><br>edit: thanks for the 1k+ subs too