‘The Mandalorian’ Has Unseated This Netflix Show as the Biggest Digital Series
Disney+ launched less than a month ago, and the streaming service already has a bonafide smash hit on its hands. Week after week, fans continue talking about how The Mandalorian expands the Star Wars universe. Now, as Netflix waits to see how its new competitor will affect business, The Mandalorian‘s popularity has already eclipsed Netflix’s biggest hit.
Fan are loving the first live-action ‘Star Wars’ series
For more than a decade, Lucasfilm was reportedly developing a live-action Star Wars series. Of course, with the company’s 2012 acquisition by Disney, the brand’s future became much more expansive. When plans for Disney+ began to come together, the streaming service arrived as the perfect opportunity to send fans back to the “galaxy far, far away.”
With The Rise of Skywalker ending the story George Lucas started in 1977, The Mandalorian might help lay the foundation for whatever comes next. Thankfully for Disney, fans have really responded to the show. “Baby Yoda” — as he’s come to be called — has emerged as the series’ real breakout star.
Moreover, Disney’s decision to release a new episode of The Mandalorian every week has undoubtedly helped keep the show top of mind. In fact, this approach strikes just the right balance between the accessibility of streaming and the water-cooler element of traditional weekly broadcasts. In today’s day and age, the latter happens all too rarely.
‘The Mandalorian’ defeats ‘Stranger Things’
Considering how well The Mandalorian manages to stay in the news cycle, perhaps it was inevitable the show would unseat other popular streaming-only series. Yet, few expected it to knock out the competition so quickly. According to a new research study, The Mandalorian became the most in-demand digital series less than two weeks after its debut.
This victory comes at the expense of Netflix’s Stranger Things, which held the top spot for 21 consecutive weeks. Season 3 of that show premiered on the streaming service in July 2019. Other shows The Mandalorian has outpaced include DC Universe’s Titans, Netflix’s own The Crown, and Hulu’s Castle Rock.
At the time this data was run, The Mandalorian was 93.5 times more in-demand than the average domestic title. The report accounts for a number of different ratings metrics. Given the popularity of streaming viewership, the number of live viewings has become far less indicative of a show’s popularity.
The beginning of the end for Netflix?
At this point in time, the future of streaming appears to be very uncertain. While Netflix has been generally unchallenged as the leader, that’s all due to change soon. Between Disney+, Apple TV+, and the upcoming HBOMax, the streaming wars are about to get really complicated.
So it’s difficult to tell just yet if The Mandalorian‘s meteoric rise to the top of the in-demand charts means all that much. Sure, Stranger Things Season 3 has lost some momentum, but it all debuted — in one shot, no less — months ago. The Mandalorian‘s success could just be a testament to Star Wars fans’ thirst for something fresh.
In any case, The Mandalorian is almost certainly responsible for boosting Disney+ sign-ups. Will the series be enough to buoy the streaming service until the new Marvel shows pop up in 2020? We’ll definitely be watching to see how Disney+ and its content library develops in the next few months.
