Image: The Handmaid’s Tale, Hulu
Our global survey released in March 2018 found that more American audiences rely on other people to find new TV shows to watch, than any other recommendation sources such as the platforms themselves. When asked how they discovered new TV shows while online, only 16% of respondents said through a home-screen recommendation on a platform like Netflix, according to the Global Television Demand Report. More respondents said they relied on word of mouth, social media, or browsing on blogs and publications.
Only Parrot Analytics can track the full range of these online activities, including TV series consumption data, in 100+ significant markets globally. By analyzing and standardizing weighted data derived from sources including social media chatter about TV series popularity through to downloads and streaming of episodes, as well as activity on information, blogging, video sharing and TV show rating sites, Parrot Analytics algorithms can accurately assess the demand for content on a global basis.
In this article we investigate which streaming TV series, as well as linear TV series, are currently the most in-demand in the US domestic market. These charts as always are powered by Parrot Analytics demand data.
Digital veteran series make an impact for the week ending April 28, as new episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale and (soon-to-arrive) Sense8 arrive on the top lists. Money Heist (La Casa De Papel) came up top with Stranger Things following as the second-most watched digital series.
The Handmaid’s Tale came off of an awards season sweep, including Emmys for best drama series and a best actress win for Elisabeth Moss. The Hulu hit returned for Season 2 on April 25 amid high expectations. Unsurprisingly, The Handmaid’s Tale had a 2-fold increase in demand in contrast to the previous week. This season will expand the world of Gilead and find Offred pregnant and on the run, and we think this series will continue to outperform even some of the most popular Netflix titles during the second quarter of 2018. Finally, Sense8 (the series finale special will launch globally on Netflix on June 8), Black Mirror (at 7th place) and Stranger Things all gained in demand slightly on the back of the start of the production for the latest season for each of these.
The Walking Dead came up as the most demanded show overall in the United States, a premium of around 39 million Demand Expressions over Money Heist’s 26 million. The Walking Dead is followed by Spongebob Squarepants (read more here: Which children’s content is most in demand in North America?), Westworld, and American Idol as the most demanded shows in the overalls list. Finally, The 100 experienced an increase in demand after a period of little activity due to its new season and HBO’s Westworld has moved up to third place with the highest growth of demand compared to the other nine titles on the overall chart. The highly anticipated second series premiered on April 22.
