Shogun Debuts on the Streaming Charts
Shogun has arrived on the streaming charts, and it marks the start of a remarkable March for Disney+ and Hulu content.
Last week, Disney once again suffered through a subpar Nielsen streaming ratings week.
Thankfully, the worst is over, and the good times have arrived, with the latest Hulu program scoring big ratings and even better reviews.
Welcome to Shogun Week on the Nielsen ratings!
Shogun Debuts on the Charts
Hulu unveiled its latest masterpiece on February 27th, which was day two of the most recent Nielsen streaming chart.
For the next six days, Hulu fans watched 513 million viewer minutes of Shogun.
So, those numbers align with the ones Disney hyped a couple of weeks ago.
The company indicated that nine million people watched Shogun worldwide, which was a better performance than season two of The Bear.
However, Nielsen streaming charts only cover the United States, making global numbers challenging to extrapolate accurately.
A total of 513 million viewer minutes is much easier to understand.
For example, we can contrast Shogun to Loki’s season two premiere, which managed 446 million viewer minutes.
To be fair, watching the first two episodes of Shogun would have taken about 70 percent longer than the shorter Loki episodes, though.
With The Bear, that’s also not an apples-to-apples comparison, as Hulu’s best show simultaneously released the entirety of season two.
The Bear stunned Nielsen analysts with its 853 million viewer minutes, but binge releases like that don’t last as long on the charts as a rule.
Shogun’s season won’t end until April 24th, which means we’ll be talking about it for another two months.
Long story short, the Hulu series is a massive hit, and its reviews are so glowing that The Bear may have competition for the best Hulu program.
Disney spent a ton of money on this lavish limited series, but the early results are glowing.
Disney Charts Three Programs
I won’t belabor the point this week since Shogun is the story, but the same three titles from the previous article charted once again.
For the week of February 26th through March 3rd, Bluey finished third overall.
Yes, that’s the same performance as last week, with the series slotting behind the same two shows, Love Is Blind and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
For the week in question, Bluey totaled 1.089 billion viewer minutes, which is ever so slightly ahead of the previous week’s 1.081 billion.
Bluey has grown staggeringly consistent, and it remains on pace to accumulate more total viewer minutes this year than during 2023.
Given that Bluey was the second-most watched program on streaming in calendar 2023, that’s a stunning feat.
Bluey also has an oversized episode in the queue for next month, which will supercharge its ratings even more.
Still, we’ve talked about Bluey a lot this year. I’d rather discuss Disney’s other two titles on the streaming charts.
Specifically, Moana and Encanto finished sixth and ninth on the Movies chart.
Moana garnered 377 million viewer minutes, which is nearly identical to the previous chart’s 384 million viewer minutes.
I suspect that the news of the sequel reminded people how much they love the movie, leading to rewatches.
However, this performance may simply reflect the sustained popularity of Disney’s most beloved recent films.
I suspect it’s mostly the latter because Encanto added another 239 million viewer minutes, up 221 million last time.
So, Disney’s Big Three at the moment slightly increased viewership despite exceptional new content on Hulu.
About Moana and Encanto
I haven’t spoken as much as I’d like about Moana and Encanto since I started recapping the Nielsen streaming ratings.
You should understand that these two movies are more popular than most people realize.
During 2023, Moana and Encanto were the two most-watched films on streaming according to the Nielsen charts.
For the calendar year, people watched Moana for a total of 11.6 billion viewer minutes.
Encanto slotted right behind Moana with 9.7 billion viewer minutes.
Once we factor in movie run times, we’re talking about 120 million viewings of Moana and 102 million viewings of Encanto.
Those totals reflect only what the movies did LAST year, which wasn’t when they were as dominant on the charts.
If we go back a year, Encanto registered 27.4 billion viewer minutes, indicating that it was three times as popular during the Bruno craze.
In 2022, people watched Encanto more than 300 million times on Disney+ alone.
Moana’s performance might be even more impressive in that Moana claimed 8.6 billion viewer minutes that year.
Folks, a 2016 movie was more popular on streaming in 2023 than in 2022, and it’s currently trending even better for 2024!
How the Disney Machine Works
If you’re ever trying to understand how the Disney storytelling machine works, Moana might be your best example.
People love the film so much that it has already proven timeless, even though it’s less than eight years old.
By the way, Turning Red was the second-most streamed movie of 2022, while Elemental finished fourth in 2023.
So, Disney+ has streamed three of the four most popular titles on streaming for two consecutive years.
Disney does this despite Netflix’s overall dominance in the industry.
People find comfort films on Disney+, watching them over and over again.
As proof, consider that ten of the 15 most-streamed movies in 2022 came from Disney+.
The following year, six of the top ten titles were Disney+ films.
Over the past two years, 64 percent of the most-watched streaming movies were part of the Disney machine.
Many of those same people want to buy the associated merchandise and experience theme park versions of those stories.
Soon, Disney will expand its gaming empire to monetize these fans as well.
When people discuss the Disney flywheel, that’s what it means. And the films on Disney+ are integral to that setup.
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