I can't believe how much fucking merchandise there is for such a small show. Compare it to even something like futurama in terms of cultural impact and there's so much more plastic shit made for Rick and Morty
Small show? I dunno about that. Rick and Morty are pretty iconic characters and there's been lots of famous moments from that show since it started broadcasting. I dunno why you are making it sound like barely anyone watched it. I was a teenager during its peak in popularity and let me tell you everyone is the hallway was quoting one liners from that show.
I think part of that is how popular merchandising like funko pops have become in recent years, Futurama was many years ago at this point.
Second reason is that despite its longevity in the internet consciousness, it’s easy to forget Futurama was fairly unpopular when it was originally airing.
Rick and morty is not a small show by almost any metric. Funko pops also became popular right around the same time and have a massive overlap in fans, so it makes sense. Futurama was not out at the same time for the most part but there is still about a dozen funko pops from it.
Funko can just make tons of unique models really cheaply, and they know fans will buy them to collect like beanie babies, so of course they'll keep churning out different versions of the same characters of one of the most popular nerd cartoons that their own fans love.
Might just be me, but when Futurama was new, Funko just wasn't the massive brand it is today. While there is Futurama Funko, Rick and Morty is still (sorta, not regularly), being made, but Futurama has been dormant for new episodes until very recently. So if the show takes off, I'd suspect a new line of Futurama Funkos for people.