The Acolyte’s True Viewership is now Second to only Obi-Wan Kenobi

According to new data acquired by ScreenRant from Reelgood, the constant review-bombing, online criticisms – both genuine and forced – and several campaigns against The Acolyte have not been able to stop the show becoming another huge success for Disney+. While there are many challenges being faced by the series, like several others before it, the information shared about its performance so far will be all good news for Lucasfilm and Disney.

The Acolyte seemed to be heading down a path to its own dark side when the initial episodes opened up the expected debate about the state of modern Star Wars projects, canon issues, and “woke and broke” comments that follow around the franchise’s latest offerings like a lost Wookie. The first statistics released suggested that The Acolyte was trailing behind its fellow recent offering, Ahsoka, but now it appears that could all have changed.

The Acolyte

2/5

Star Wars series that take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.

Release Date

June 4, 2024

Main Genre

Sci-Fi

Cast

Amandla Stenberg , Lee Jung-jae , Joonas Suotamo , Charlie Barnett , Dafne Keen , Leah Brady , Manny Jacinto , Rebecca Henderson , Carrie-Anne Moss , Jodie Turner-Smith , Dean-Charles Chapman , Lauren Brady , Anthony J. Abraham , Thara Shöön , Danielle Xin Yao Waterman , Sienna Khiroya , Jeramiah Evans , Dan Milne , Thomas Coombes , Archie Singh Swali , Nick Court , Ed Kear , Jumayn Hunter , Scroobius Pip , Abigail Thorn , Margarita Levieva , Amy Tsang , Saskia Allen , Deborah Rosan , Tabitha Alege , Paul Bullion , Indra Ové , Derek Arnold , Lewis Young

Seasons

1

Studio

Disney+, Lucasfilm

Franchise

Star Wars

Number of Episodes

8

Streaming Service(s)

Disney+

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Reelgood, who analyze the data of over 20 million users across all platforms, assessed The Acolyte’s performance when directly compared to other live-action shows, taking into account many factors to give a better understanding of the performance of the series. Of course, with many streamers choosing not to release data about the viewing habits of their subscribers, working out who is watching what and how relevant it is to a series’ success has become an increasingly difficult thing to say with absolute accuracy.

According to Reelgood’s analysis though, The Acolyte has found a place in the Star Wars franchise’s TV branch that is second to only Obi-Wan Kenobi. The data suggests that the newest addition to the franchise, for all of its supposed canon faults and other complaints, has been outperforming the average top 100 shows by a factor of six, which is two behind the factor of eight that Ewan McGregor’s series achieved.

The Acolyte is Causing a Disturbance in the Force

The Acolyte has defied its critics to become another strong performer on Disney+ where it matters – viewership. The arrival of every new addition to the franchise comes with an expected wave of negativity about aspects that perhaps don’t quite fit exactly with how things were in 1977. However, it has become increasingly clear that this kind of constant attacking by a certain faction of the fandom does not have any impact at all when it comes to drawing in viewers.

Although casual Star Wars viewers will not really care whether a lightsaber should or shouldn’t do a certain thing, or a character should or shouldn’t be able to perform this Jedi trick, those with a little more investment in the sacred world of Star Wars have found many such niggles in the show’s first episodes. However, as the series has progressed, there have been more positive notes coming out for the latest episode.

Related

The Acolyte Star Praises the Series Doing What Most Star Wars Projects Are Afraid to Do

The Acolyte’s Dafne Keen has heaped praise on showrunner Leslye Headland for doing what many other Star Wars shows shy away from.

Based on the strong viewer volumes, something that holds much more sway with studios than the opinions of both critics or audiences on review aggregate sites, the chances of The Acolyte getting a second season seems to be gaining momentum. Creator Leslye Headland has already revealed that she does have an idea of where a second season could go, despite throwing almost everything into Season 1.