I have seen many articles in which people were upset that their “Star Wars” show was canceled due to low viewership. “The Acolyte” is reportedly the second most-watched show of 2024. But that is the issue. It was for 2024, which saw lower viewership overall on the shows.
Where is the data coming from?
The data comes from Luminate Data, which compiled a list of shows and viewing times for 2024. The information on the chart was compiled from data between 12/29/2023 and 12/31/2024.
Here are the top shows on Disney+ for that time frame.
“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” was number one at 3,070 million minutes watched. It was also released nine days ahead of the data collection start, so it was likely higher overall.
“The Acolyte” hit number two with 2.673 billion minutes watched from June 4, 2024-December 31, 2024, which was a few days short of seven months.
In third place was “Agatha All Along,” at 2.284 billion minutes. It was relatively close to “The Acolyte” but had three fewer months of data collection.
Fourth was Marvel’s “Echo” at 1.537 billion minutes. It had almost an entire year of data collection.
Other titles on the list include “X-Men ’97,” “Star Wars: The Bad Batch,” “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew,” “Ahsoka,” “The Mandalorian: Season 3,” and “The Mandalorian: Season 1.” Interestingly enough, the two seasons of “The Mandalorian” still rounded out Disney+’s top shows in 2024 even though the first season premiered over four years earlier than the start of this data set.
It did well for 2024, but that does not mean it is good enough to warrant the huge spend on a Season 2.
How does this compare to other “Star Wars” shows?
Here is the issue. It is far behind them.
This chart was created a little more than halfway through the year. Comparing the shows “apples to apples” for 12 weeks gave us a better idea of how each performed.
That said, in the almost seven months since “The Acolyte” premiered, it has only reached 2,673 billion minutes, which is still far behind the other shows. This chart only shows their first 12 weeks.
In fact, Luminate said the following regarding the shows of 2024,
“2024 saw diminishing returns for some of the biggest properties on Disney+. Both live-action Marvel TV series Echo and Agatha All Along underperformed when compared to 2023 series like Loki and Secret Invasion. Both of these 2024 titles also underperformed compared to Percy Jackson and the Olympians, a late-2023 release. Percy Jackson is a known IP based on beloved novels, but the only screen adaptations are two films from 2010 and 2013. The franchise had never been given a faithful, author-approved adaptation.”
Clearly, this would also apply to the “Star Wars” franchise when we see the dropoff from shows pre-2024 to “The Acolyte” in 2024.
It isn’t a win.
“The Acolyte” may have been a “top show for 2024” but 2024 seemingly sucked. Disney’s #1 show was still lower than Netflix’s #10 show for the year.
This is why it is possible for a show to be a top performer for a time period yet still underperform when compared to the total viewership numbers of other shows in the franchise.
What do you think? Comment and let us know!
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