In the never-ending debate over binge-vs.-weekly release in streaming, Disney+ has found success with a compromise.
The unique release cadence for the latest iteration of the Star Wars franchise — the critically acclaimed Andor — parsed its 12-episode second season into three episodes per week for four consecutive weeks beginning on April 22.
The strategy is a variation on a distribution pattern more commonly employed by Disney+ and other streamers, which involves a multi-episode release to start the season and segueing to a more traditional one-episode-per-week rhythm, as was done for the franchise’s three recent live-action releases: Andor Season 1 (3 episodes to start then weekly), Ahsoka (2 episodes then weekly) and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (same as Ahsoka).
The results speak for themselves: While those three series saw the size of their audience peak in week 2, Andor S2 is seeing its base building through the first four weeks, according to Luminate’s Streaming Viewership (M) data. The release date of Andor’s final batch of episodes peaked as the season’s best single day of viewership, with 171M minutes watched.
Most shows see some drop-off week over week, but audiences’ tendency to stick with Andor has remained consistent from Season 1 to 2. The 20% viewer drop from episode 3 to 4 (the first weeklong break in episodes released) is nearly identical for Andor Season 1 and 2. Ahsoka, which opened stronger than both seasons of Andor, had a 31% decline in the same time frame.
While the quality of a narrative that has fans and critics alike buzzing deserves credit for sparking the word of mouth crucial for propelling a series’ impressive growth, Disney+ fueled the fire by serving up a monthlong diet of mini-binge opportunities.
Andor S2 is just the latest episode-distribution experiment in a wide spectrum of executions between the all-at-once binge model popularized by Netflix and the broadcast-style weekly installments favored by HBO Max.
This particular Disney+ hybrid approach is rare but not entirely unprecedented: In 2021, Peacock dropped teen drama One of Us Is Lying in three consecutive weekly increments, with two episodes in the final batch. Netflix has broken up seasons of top shows Stranger Things, Bridgerton and Love Is Blind over longer periods, and the final season of the streamer’s Cobra Kai was split into three drops over the course of five months.
The strength of Andor S2 is all the more impressive, as it opened slightly below Andor S1, which in itself is somewhat surprising since the first season was so warmly received. Giving viewers more than one episode after the opening week may have played a vital role in driving momentum after a soft start.
With all its episodes released, Andor S2 is currently running strong enough to top a field of other buzzy new SVOD content out there. Though Netflix binge releases The Four Seasons and Forever are running ahead of the pack, Andor S2 is pacing ahead of other stalwarts, including Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Netflix’s You.
But if the staying power of Andor S1 is any indication, S2 could see the strength of its run hold long after its promising first month. Comparing its first 12 weeks with a 52-week period demonstrates Andor S1 grew its total audience 46%, exceeding the growth rates of Ahsoka (20%) and The Mandalorian S3 (21%).
The long-term viability of Andor is especially welcome to Disney considering the series’ $290M-per-season budget, according to Luminate Film & TV data. As this newsletter has previously explored, Star Wars has been a source of diminishing returns on the TV side.
The early success of The Mandalorian was followed by less encouraging returns, culminating in the cancellation after S1 of The Acolyte, which had been developed as a multiseason series and even teased several storylines before its departure.
Other streamers may want to take note of how not reverting back to one episode each week after launching with multiple episodes actually provides a viable path to audience retention — and expansion.
To see up-to-date performance for Andor or any other title on SVOD, check out Luminate Streaming Viewership (M).
