Image: Stranger Things, Netflix
This week digital TV demand is dominated by Stranger Things. The hotly anticipated Season 3 of the Netflix show released this week on July 4th and demand for the title has increased by nearly 70% compared to last week’s already high demand.
This solidly relegates HBO’s Game Of Thrones to second place on the overall chart as Stranger Things now has 1.7x the demand of the fantasy drama. Even for Season 1 we observed that Stranger Things does not demonstrate the usual demand pattern of an all-at-once release: a week or two of peak demand then a quick decline to a demand baseline by around a month after premiere. Instead, Stranger Things has for previous seasons remained at a high baseline of demand. If this holds true for Season 3 as well, it seems unlikely that Game Of Thrones will ever regain the top spot.
Anime titles did well in the US this week as last week’s tenth most in demand title, One Punch Man, leaps to fourth this week. July 2nd saw the release of the anime’s Season 2 finale. As with rest of the season, this was available with English subtitles on Hulu simultaneously with the Japanese broadcast on TV Tokyo. Similarly, the anime series Attack On Titan reaches tenth this week in the US as it also had a season finale this week; Season 3 ended on July 1st.
Current events comedy Saturday Night Live returns to the top 10 overall tv shows this week in sixth place, up from eleventh last week. Chart mainstay The Walking Dead is also up having gained 20% more demand this week. This is being driven by intense fan speculation about how the ending of the comic book series the show is based on will affect the AMC zombie drama.
In the digital original chart, the battle for the most in demand digital original series is likely settled for some time as Stranger Things has a huge 158 million daily US Demand Expressions. The second most in-demand digital original this week is The Handmaid’s Tale, moving Netflix’s Black Mirror down to third. Hulu’s dystopian drama averaged 37.5 million daily US demand as the show’s Season 3 continues to be released weekly.
The biggest rise in the digital original chart this week is DC Universe’s Young Justice. The animated series has 52% more demand compared to the show’s digital TV demand last week. The reason for this large increase is because the second half of the show’s Season 3 began on July 2nd. Three episodes of the show were released on that day, while the rest of the season will release weekly until the season finale at the end of August. Young Justice’s fellow DC Universe title Titans also moved up the digital original chart this week, moving from 6th to 4th most in demand.
Also moving up is Netflix’s Dark, which is up three places from last week. Finally, Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black rises one place as anticipation builds in US audiences for the upcoming final season.
