‘The Mandalorian,’ ‘Loki’ Top Disney+ Most-Watched Shows
Disney+’s investment in Star Wars and Marvel is paying off. Eight shows, nine seasons, and 75 episodes total have been released between the two franchises since the streaming service launched in 2019. And according to Nielsen streaming data, The Mandalorian and Loki are Disney+’s most-watched shows not only for the franchises, but across all of Disney+’s original programming.
The Mandalorian is the most-watched of the eight shows by far, an analysis of Nielsen streaming data by The Hollywood Reporter reveals. Nielsen’s 2021 year-end report showed Disney+’s first original series was watched for 14.5 billion minutes throughout the year. And 8.4 billion of those minutes were watched in the eight weeks after The Mandalorian Season 2 premiered.
But Loki has a higher average watch time per episode at 872 million minutes each, thanks to its shorter season. (The Mandalorian Seasons 1 and 2 are eight episodes each; Loki Season 1 has six episodes.) And it surpasses all other Marvel shows in minutes watched. Loki garnered a total of 5.23 billion minutes watched and remains the first and only Marvel show to break the 1 billion minutes watched mark in one week.
Additionally, the Star Wars and Marvel shows are the only Disney+ original series to break into the Nielsen streaming charts. All eight of them have done so, with the majority of them sitting comfortably in the top five for several weeks at a time.
When comparing both seasons of The Mandalorian and the other Star Wars and Marvel live-action shows, this is how they ranked, from most minutes watched to least:
The Mandalorian Season 2 (8.38 billion minutes watched)
The Mandalorian Season 1 (5.42 billion minutes watched)
Loki Season 1 (5.23 billion minutes watched)
WandaVision (4.8 billion minutes watched)
The Book of Boba Fett (4.4 billion minutes watched)
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Season 1 (4.15 billion minutes watched)
Hawkeye (3.46 billion minutes watched)
Marvel Studios/Disney+
Notably, none of the Marvel shows have had second seasons yet, which makes Loki‘s performance all the more impressive. The success of The Mandalorian Season 1 is also a feat, as it was Disney+’s first original series. It came out November 12, 2019, the day the streaming app launched. A show performing that well on a brand new streaming service is noteworthy, and the series undoubtedly contributed to Disney+ raking in 26.5 million worldwide subscribers in its first quarter.
What If … and Star Wars: The Bad Batch also made it into Nielsen’s streaming charts for seven weeks combined from May to October, bringing in around 2 billion minutes watched.
Marvel released its newest title, Moon Knight, on March 30. And Ms. Marvel debuts June 8. Obi-Wan Kenobi debuts May 25, and it’s hard to imagine the Ewan McGregor series not becoming one of the platform’s biggest successes. The Mandalorian will be back for Season 3, and Loki will be back for Season 2.
The Mandalorian, Seasons 1-2, Loki, Season 1, Available for Streaming, Disney+
