Correction: ‘Andor’ Seeing Higher Audience Demand Than Initially Reported, Still Behind Other ‘Star Wars’ Shows
CORRECTION:
Brandon Katz, the Parrot Analytics data analyst that posted the graphic seen below concerning Andor‘s audience demand numbers, has issued a correction on social media. Apparently, while Andor is still behind other Star Wars shows in terms of demand when compared to their respective streaming landscapes, it’s performing much better than expected, even hitting “exceptional demand in several instances.” (See the correction tweets below. The original and incorrect graphic has also been now uploaded to the original article below for preservation purposes.)
According to the Parrot Analytics website, Andor has had a demand over the past 30 days 31.3 times higher than the average streaming show at the moment. As seen in the graphic below, this brings it just right below the demand numbers that Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett scored during their premiere dates. A new, updated graphic is to be expected within the next few days.
Interestingly enough, this piece of information comes a few hours after Nielsen released its top 10 streaming shows from the week Andor came out. The series had its three-episode debut on September 21st, and in the first two days of release, it scored 624 million minutes watched by Disney Plus subscribers. While it felt just short of cracking the top 10 Streaming Programs that week, it did manage to take the #6 spot in the Streaming Original Programs list. For comparison, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, whose two-episode premiere was around the same length as Andor‘s first three episodes combined, doubled Andor‘s viewership numbers — this is not really surprising, as The Rings of Power marked the return to a beloved world for millions of fans and relied on one of the most expensive marketing campaigns in streaming history, while Andor struggled to get people excited given the title character’s fate in the movie it was introduced in.
It has hit exceptional demand in several instances.
I apologize for the mistake. 100% on me. Will be more careful moving forward (and will be deleting the tweet so as to avoid further confusion).
— Brandon Katz (@Great_Katzby) October 20, 2022
Six episodes into Andor, we still don’t have a full grasp of how well the series is performing with audiences. While critic reactions were strong following the premiere, and overall the series seems to be well-accepted among the fanbase, it’s hard to quantify that sensation. However, new data from Parrot Analytics shows that Andor is not as in-demand with respect to everything else that is streaming today, as previous shows like The Mandalorian were.
The most disappointing trend I've come across recently is how audience demand for #Andor is overwhelmingly lower than #TheMandalorian S1-2, #TheBookofBobaFett and #ObiWan despite the fact that it is easily the best #StarWars series BY FAR. pic.twitter.com/n0sKGHDIOI
— Brandon Katz (@Great_Katzby) October 14, 2022
It’s important to clarify what these numbers mean, and why they are just one piece of the puzzle. The graphic gives away the impression that nobody is watching Andor. This is not necessarily the case. What this tells us is that there’s less online talk of Andor when compared to the average series streaming today than there was for the rest of the Star Wars series when compared to the rest of the streaming landscape at the time they came out. It’s important to emphasize that this is not a viewership graphic, but rather an online demand one — Parrot Analytics aggregate measures of the number of downloads, news coverage, social media, and even piracy on a specific series.
There is one additional asterisk here. Both seasons of The Mandalorian came out with practically no competition, and they easily jumped to the #1 global spot. This was not the case for both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor, as both series faced quite harsh competition. The former played against Netflix’s biggest season ever, Stranger Things season 4, as well as other extremely popular shows like The Boys season 3 or Peaky Blinders season 6. Meanwhile, Andor is facing the biggest competition of the year, with two fantasy power players going against one another in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon (each is almost averaging a billion minutes streamed every week), as well as Netflix’s Cobra Kai season 5.
Nielsen’s top 10 from the week Andor had its season premiere on Disney Plus is expected to come out later this week, so we’ll have a more complete picture of how well it’s doing in terms of actual viewership.
In other Andor-related news, Lucasfilm has released a new character poster. This is Cinta Kaz, played by Varada Sethu:
Cinta Kaz. Probably the toughest one here.
A new episode of #Andor, an Original Star Wars series, is streaming Wednesday only on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/8auO4S6fOq
— Star Wars | Andor Now Streaming On Disney+ (@starwars) October 17, 2022
New episodes of Andor are streaming on Disney Plus every Wednesday. Episode 7 is expected to deviate from the three-episode-arc model as Tony Gilroy teased recently. You may look forward to our review of that episode on Wednesday morning as well as TRB Live! that same night, where The Resistance Broadcast will recap and discuss the new episode.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
