Image: Ted Lasso, Apple TV+
Starting at the top of the overall US demand chart, the week of April 18 – 24 makes it two weeks in a row as most in-demand series for Spongebob Squarepants. The cartoon retook the top spot last week from anime series Attack On Titan, which slips to third this week.
Continuing from last week’s ‘Iron Anniversary’, American audience demand for Game Of Thrones has risen again this week. Retrospectives and analyses of the show’s 10 years of existence in both the press and social media have sparked renewed interest in the fantasy series from fans.
Demand for Stranger Things rose slightly this week, but sadly for fans of the Netflix hit it was due to bad news. During a fan meet-and-greet, series actor Finn Wolfhard suggested that fans hoping for a 2021 release of Season 4 should instead expect it in 2022.
Venerable animation The Simpsons returns to the US top ten this week, one rank up from last week’s eleventh. Last week’s episode in the ongoing Season 32 included a parody of singer Morrissey, voiced by guest star Benedict Cumberbatch. This sparked controversy after the singer’s manager claimed the parody was ‘an insult to the artist’.
After a long climb to the top of this chart, Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier remains the most in-demand digital original for the second week in a row. The show is currently releasing new episodes weekly and demand remains largely unchanged from last week with 43.3 times the demand of the average series.
'Unchanged from last week' is an apt description of the most demanded US digital original series this week. The top seven series remain in the same ranking order as last week, with Stranger Things and WandaVision remaining as second and third most in-demand respectively.
However, there is change further down the chart. Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale returns to the top ten with a 14% increase in demand as audiences anticipate Season 4’s debut next week.
Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso is this week’s fastest growing series and is also the second new entry of the week. US demand increased by 31% after Apple released a trailer for Ted Lasso Season 2, which is scheduled for release in July.
