Image: Dark, Netflix
There is a momentous shift for this week’s analysis of which series are the most wanted television in the United States. As we noted last week, Game Of Thrones demand has been on a downward trend since the conclusion of Season 8. Meanwhile, Netflix’s Stranger Things has been on an upward trend ahead of the July 4th release of Season 3. This week those trends intersected and Stranger Things overtook the fantasy drama in demand, 94.0 to 91.6 million.
This means that for the first time in 2019, Game Of Thrones is no longer America’s most wanted television series.
Returning to the top ten this week is AMC’s The Walking Dead which with 42.6 million demand expressions comes in at 9th most in demand. The demand increase comes after rumors emerged that a fan-favorite character will crossover with sister show Fear The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead replaces Netflix’s Black Mirror, which drops to 16th on the overall chart but remains 2nd on the digital original chart.
Overall though there were not many changes week-on-week for the US top ten. Four shows stay in the same place they occupied last week and only one title from last week’s top ten, WWE Monday Night Raw, moved more than one rank in either direction. The three place gain from eighth to fifth most in demand for WWE Monday Night Raw is due to legendary wrestler The Undertaker making a surprise appearance.
The Netflix original Dark returns to the list of most wanted television digital originals for the first time since Jan 2018. Netflix released Season 2 of the show on the 21st of June and demand consequently rose by 64.7%.
Critics frequently compare Dark to fellow Netflix show Stranger Things. As such, the release of Dark Season 2 just two weeks before the hotly anticipated Season 3 premiere of Stranger Things seems like a calculated move by Netflix to capitalize on the current high audience anticipation for the bigger show. The result shows it is an effective strategy.
Another strong riser amongst digital originals in the USA is Orange Is The New Black. The long-running prison drama gained 22.3% more demand compared to the previous week after the first trailer for the show’s upcoming Season 7 was released on June 26th. Season 7 will be the show’s final season.
Black Mirror lost the most demand in the digital original top ten. This week, it had 23.2% less demand than the previous week. However, the show still retained enough demand to remain the second most wanted television series in the US digital original space.
