What Were People Watching During Christmas Week?
What did we all do during Christmas Week?
Well, those of us who weren’t at Disney loaded up Disney+ and Hulu and watched our favorite holiday content.
Not coincidentally, Christmas Week has become one of the most significant weeks for streaming content each year.
Which streaming programs were popular during Christmas Week? Let’s take a look at the list…
About Nielsen Streaming
In case you haven’t looked at a calendar lately, we’re about to enter February.
So, I realize it’s a bit late in the game to discuss the Christmas Week streaming charts.
Sadly, Nielsen isn’t always the best at meeting its publication deadlines.
The streaming charts are typically four weeks behind, and the current list was late to publish.
Even though it feels a bit tardy, we ARE talking about the streaming charts for the week of December 25th through December 31st, 2023.
Historically, Christmas Week is one of the biggest weeks of the year for streaming content.
For this reason, everything will require slightly higher viewer numbers to place on the list.
Disney Excels on the Originals Chart
Photo: Hulu
As I mentioned last week and two weeks ago, Disney+ banked its entire holiday season around two releases.
With anchor programs like Loki and Only Murders in the Building finishing their runs, Disney+ debuted new programming in December.
The most important title is Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the reboot of the Rick Riordan book series.
Photo: Disney
During its first week on the charts, the new Percy Jackson series claimed a massive 572 million viewer minutes.
For Disney+, that’s an incredible performance! And now we know that the show is even more popular than that.
During Christmas Week, even more fans gave Percy Jackson and the Olympians a chance.
The Percy Jackson film
The show earned 700 million viewer minutes, thereby rivaling Loki for some of the best Original Program numbers in recent memory.
Disney quantifiably has a blockbuster on its hands, and that trend should continue for a while.
Percy Jackson managed such lofty numbers with only three episodes available.
Subscribers only had about 120 minutes of footage to watch, indicating about 5.8 million viewings of Percy Jackson during Christmas Week!
What If…? Excels
Photo: Marvel
Disney’s good news didn’t stop there, either. What If…? season two debuted on the streaming service on December 22nd.
The streaming service adopted an unusual approach for the animated Marvel series.
Disney+ aired one new episode a day from December 22nd through December 30th…and the strategy unmistakably worked!
Photo: Marvel
During Christmas Week, Nielsen tracked 513 million viewer minutes for What If…? and its 18 total episodes.
Obviously, this comparison isn’t apples to apples with Percy Jackson since the entire season of What If…? was available by the end.
Still, you can tell by the large number that LOTS AND LOTS of people watched original programming on Disney+ during Christmas Week.
Photo: Marvel
Realistically, What If…? probably will only appear on the charts once or twice more since its second season finished on December 30th.
Still, Disney+ should be ecstatic over this performance.
The idea of highlighting the Christmas episode, a Die Hard knockoff starring Happy Hogan, paid huge dividends.
Riri Williams and her Ironheart suit. Photo: Marvel.
Fittingly, that episode streamed for the first time on Christmas Eve, putting viewers in the holiday spirit for Christmas Week.
Rumors abound that season three of What If…? is well into production and could arrive much sooner than expected.
Given the overwhelming success of What If…? season two, I understand why Disney is rushing the follow-up season.
Let’s All Watch Christmas Movies
Here’s my confession. You don’t even want to know how many holiday movies I own on Vudu, Amazon, and Apple.
Similarly, if I showed you the number of Hallmark holiday movies I’ve recorded on YouTube TV, you’d do a triple-take. It’s A LOT.
I’m a holiday movie enthusiast every bit as much as I’m a Disney fan.
Photo: Home Alone
So, this week’s data reinforces that many of you are my people.
During Christmas Week, a pair of Disney+/Hulu titles earned a spot on the Movies Top Ten chart.
If you’ve been reading this column and paying attention, you know what they are, too.
Image Credit: Disney
Yes, Home Alone once again scored 433 million viewer minutes, proving that Kevin remains a draw 30 years after the fact.
Similarly, Elf on Hulu managed another 412 million viewer minutes.
Given the timeframe involved, we will probably place Kevin and Buddy in mothballs for the next ten months.
IMDB
After all, the holidays have ended. But we WILL see them again.
Oh yes, we most certainly will track their excellence when November arrives.
Until then, Disney thanks you fellow holiday enthusiasts for your service.
PS: What were you really doing during Christmas Week? Watching Bluey, of course.
The anchor program on Disney+ earned 1.113 billion minutes for Christmas Week, making it the second-most watched program on streaming.
It’s Bluey’s world, and we’re all just living in it.
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