‘Andor’ Struggles With Ratings and Audience Demand
While Andor has been exceeding expectations in terms of critical reception, being highly praised as the best Star Wars show so far by many outlets and fans alike, the show has admittedly been struggling with the ratings and having a true impact on pop culture like shows such as The Mandalorian did.
An initial study posted by an analyst from Parrot Analytics on social media in October showed that the audience demand for Andor when compared to everything else streaming today was almost negligible next to the previous Star Wars series. That initial graphic was incorrect, and the numbers were significantly higher, though they were still behind shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett.
New data published by Parrot Analytics concerning the audience demand for streaming content between Oct. 15-21 with respect to the average streaming show underlines that the numbers are going up, but they still aren’t quite as high as one would have hoped. Check the data below:
It’s interesting to note, and perhaps even concerning, that The Mandalorian is almost more in-demand than Andor, even when it’s been two years without a new episode of the former, while the latter is airing right now. Looking closely at the left graphic, though, we can see that Game of Thrones almost doubles House of the Dragon‘s demand — it’s not a direct comparison between both IPs, but we can definitely draw some parallels.
It’s also important to remark that this is not a viewership graphic, and instead is a reflection of how much people are talking online about each of these series, from social media posts or news coverage to number of legal and illegal downloads. In terms of ratings, we have data published by Nielsen from the first three weeks Andor was in release, and the charts do confirm that fewer people are watching. Not only that, but the number of minutes streamed goes down each week:
It’s also worth considering the fact that Andor might not play with the rewatchability factor that other shows like The Mandalorian did. Being a more adult show than previous Star Wars series might also turn off the younger audiences in the house, but that might not be reflected by these charts, as adults and kids likely watch The Mandalorian at the same time. However, the show’s nature of being less space opera and more political thriller might also turn off some of Star Wars‘ adult audiences who have come to expect something different from a galaxy far, far away.
To get a slightly more complete picture of how the Nielsen ratings compare to previous Star Wars shows, we have the two graphics below. On the left, we have the millions of minutes streamed for each of the shows released since October 2020, each week, according to Nielsen. So we see how The Book of Boba Fett was continuously watched more and more every week, while Obi-Wan Kenobi had a big drop after week 2, which coincided with the release of episode 3. (Note that the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, for instance, premiered on a Friday, so those viewers that watched on the Monday after would count as week 2 views.)
On the right, we have the same graphic, but dividing numbers from the left graphic by the total amount of content time available for each show (counting from 00:00 to the minute the credits start rolling on each episode, as we assume that’s when most people tune out). This may be a bit deceiving, but it is important to consider that Nielsen does not account for minutes streamed of the new episode, but rather, the entire series. This means that The Mandalorian‘s season 2 premiere viewership number on the left graphic also accounts for how many people watched any episode of season 1 that week, which was probably quite a lot considering it came out on a Friday. Of course, there weren’t as many people watching season 1 of The Mandalorian while season 2 was airing — however, it does show a pattern of consistency across the different weeks, meaning that people weren’t just watching the new episode, as it seems to be the case with the rest of the series, but instead going back and revisiting previous episodes. The important remark here, though, is that Andor is tanking on both graphics, meaning that most people are both tuning out and not going back to watch previous episodes.
Andor has three episodes left from season 1. The 10th episode will air on Wednesday, which will conclude the current three-episode arc. Season 2 will begin principal photography on the 21st in London.
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.
