Nielsen Data Shows ‘The Acolyte’ Had Second-Worst Premiere Ratings Of Any Disney Star Wars Series

Osha (Amandla Stenberg) dons Qimir's (Manny Jacinto) helmet in The Acolyte Season 1 Episode 6 'Teach/Corrupt' (2024), Disney
Osha (Amandla Stenberg) dons Qimir's (Manny Jacinto) helmet in The Acolyte Season 1 Episode 6 'Teach/Corrupt' (2024), Disney

In offering a massive counter to the laughable mainstream narrative that the Leslye Headland-helmed series is an audience success, viewing data provided by The Nielsen Company appears to show that the premiere of The Acolyte was one of the least-watched in the history of Disney Star Wars television.

Mae (Amandla Stenberg) prepares to defend herself from Sol (Lee Jung-jae) in The Acolyte Season 1 Episode 2 "Revenge/Justice" (2024), Disney
Mae (Amandla Stenberg) prepares to defend herself from Sol (Lee Jung-jae) in The Acolyte Season 1 Episode 2 “Revenge/Justice” (2024), Disney

RELATED: ‘The Acolyte’ Showrunner Leslye Headland Stands Behind Qimir Bathing Scene: “From A Narrative Perspective, It Had To Happen. It Had To.”

Per the noted analytics firm’s numbers for the week between June 3rd to June 9th, The Acolyte pulled in roughly 488 million collective viewing minutes across its two-episode debut, for an average of 244 million each.

In doing so, the series managed to place 7th overall on the week’s Most Watch Original TV Streaming Ratings leaderboard, coming in behind Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult, Geek Girl, Evil, Bridgerton, Sweet Tooth, and Eric (all produced or co-produced by Netflix).

Nielsen's Streaming TV Top 10 for the week of June 3rd - June 9th, 2024
Nielsen’s Streaming TV Top 10 for the week of June 3rd – June 9th, 2024

And sadly for Disney’s PR teams, according to Nielsen’s own data, The Acolyte posted the second-worst premiere ratings of any Disney Star Wars television series.

For comparison, the respective Nielsen premiere numbers for each series, by release order and in minutes, are as follows:

  • The Mandalorian Season 1 – Data Not Available
  • The Mandalorian Season 2 – One episode, 1.032 million
  • The Book of Boba Fett – One episode, 389 million
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi – Two episodes, 1.026 million total, 513 million average
  • Andor – Three episodes, 624 million total, 208 million average
  • The Mandalorian Season 3 – One episode, 823 million
  • Ahsoka – Two episodes, 829 million total, 414.5 million average

Per these records, the only series premiere to pull in less viewers than The Acolyte‘s was Andor‘s, though notably only by just 47 million.

Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) awakens on Aldhani in Andor Season 1 Episode 5 "The Axe Forgets" (2022), Lucasfilm
Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) awakens on Aldhani in Andor Season 1 Episode 5 “The Axe Forgets” (2022), Lucasfilm

RELATED: ‘The Acolyte’ Showrunner Leslye Headland Defends Series’ Portrayal Of The Jedi, Says It “May Feel Like I’m Criticizing The Jedi As They Exist In George Lucas’ Ouevre” But “That’s Not The Case”

As noted above, this confirmed data – from a noted and trusted industry source no less – throws a massive wrench into Disney’s previous claim that The Acolyte‘s viewership represents a massive franchise victory.

On July 1st, ScreenRant published an article alleging that, according to “exclusive data” obtained from streaming-service aggregator app Reelgood, “The Acolyte is the second most successful [Star Wars series] in terms of streaming and engagement, outperforming the average top 100 TV show by a factor of 6.”

Osha (Amandla Stenberg) brings Qimir's (Manny Jacinto) lightsaber to his own throat in The Acolyte Season 1 Episode 6 'Teach/Corrupt' (2024), Disney
Osha (Amandla Stenberg) brings Qimir’s (Manny Jacinto) lightsaber to his own throat in The Acolyte Season 1 Episode 6 ‘Teach/Corrupt’ (2024), Disney

However, while this statistic seems impressive on its face, special note should be made of the fact that its numbers also take into account “engagement”, a vague measurement defined by the platform themselves as “an aggregation of user interactions with titles across Reelgood platforms, including playbacks, tracking, and other interactions.”

In other words, due to counting seemingly any interaction a user has with the series on any of their platforms as a point towards The Acolyte‘s popularity – such as searching for it, clicking news articles related to it, or even negatively commenting on it – Reelgood’s glowing statistic absolutely cannot be relied on as an accurate indicator of audience sentiment.

Osha (Amandla Stenberg) finds herself entranced with Qimir's (Manny Jacinto) helmet in The Acolyte Season 1 Episode 6 'Teach/Corrupt' (2024), Disney
Osha (Amandla Stenberg) finds herself entranced with Qimir’s (Manny Jacinto) helmet in The Acolyte Season 1 Episode 6 ‘Teach/Corrupt’ (2024), Disney

With two episodes left to go, The Acolyte continues its exceptionally boring journey on July 9th.

NEXT: ‘The Acolyte’ Showrunner Leslye Headland Teases Reylo-Style Romance Between Osha And Qimir: “I Was Sent One Fanfic And I Was Absolutely Surprised At How Prescient It Was”

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