Rosario Dawson in ‘Ahsoka’
Courtesy of Lucasfilm/Disney+
Disney+ is breaking with its usual practice to share some (strong) viewing numbers for the premiere of its latest Star Wars series, Ahsoka.
According to the streamer, the first episode of the series, starring Rosario Dawson as the titular Jedi, has racked up 14 million views worldwide in the five days after its Aug. 23 debut. Disney+ is using the same methodology for counting a “view” that Netflix has employed for the past couple of months — dividing the total viewing time by the run time for a given title.
In Ahsoka’s case, 14 million views of the 56-minute premiere episode would equate to 784 million minutes of viewing worldwide. “Views” doesn’t necessarily equal “viewers,” however, as the total viewing time doesn’t necessarily account for multiple people watching the show together or a single person watching the episode several times. Disney+ also didn’t release any figures for episode two of Ahsoka, which also premiered Aug. 23.
The view figure for Ahsoka represents the first time Disney+ has released any kind of concrete viewing data for one of its titles. Like most other streamers, it has typically only alluded to relative performance (albeit with a baseline for comparison) when touting the success of its series or movies. (Disney+ programming is included in Nielsen’s weekly rankings of the top 10 streaming titles in the United States.)
Data transparency is a sticking point between striking writers and actors and the media companies represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, with both the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA asking for some kind of residual or revenue sharing for shows based on how well they perform.
“Ahsoka has become a fan favorite with people of all ages, and it’s wonderful to see her continue to resonate with viewers in her very own headlining series,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said in a statement. “I want to recognize the fantastic work done by our creative team, led by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, the incredible cast led by Rosario Dawson, and our talented crew — and on behalf of the team and all of Lucasfilm, we give our thanks to all the fans who have been with Ahsoka on every step of her journey and to all those who are just learning about her now in Ahsoka on Disney+.”
