Last week, Disney released the first two episodes of its new Star Wars series, “The Acolyte”, on Disney+ around the world and it was revealed that the premiere of “The Acolyte” pulled in 4.8 million views on its first day on Disney+ globally

This series is set during the High Republic Era of the Star Wars saga, “The Acolyte” tells the story of an investigation into a shocking crime spree that pits a respected Jedi master against a dangerous warrior from his past.

Disney has announced that over the first five days, the show pulled in 11.1 million views* globally, maintaining its status as the biggest series premiere on Disney+ of 2024.   The next biggest release of the year was FX’s “Shogun”, which pulled in 9 million views globally across Hulu and Disney+.

With the release of the data from the first five days, we can now compare it to some previous releases. Last year, Disney revealed that “Ahsoka” pulled in 14 million views over its first five days, “Percy Jackson And The Olympians” pulled in 13.3 million views in its first six days on Disney+ and Hulu, with the second season of “Loki” pulled in 10.9 million views globally after three days streaming on Disney+.

The first two episodes of “The Acolyte” are available to stream on Disney+, and a new episode will debut every Tuesday through to July 16th 2024.

Roger’s Take:  While this announcement can be seen as good news for the show, there are some issues with this data, especially as it spinning it as a huge win, but in reality, there have been far fewer releases on Disney+ in the first half of 2024 than previous years.   And while “The Acolyte” had a strong day-one viewership, since we don’t have day-one viewership for any other show, it’s impossible to compare to other Disney+ premieres.  

And when you compare the viewership to these major shows from last year, “The Acolyte” has struggled to attract as many viewers as possible over the five-day period.   The reaction to the show has been very mixed, and I’ve little doubt that the negative online discussion about the show has likely reduced interest in the show, but hopefully over the series, more people check it out. It’ll also be interesting to see how “The Acolyte” fairs when the Nielsen streaming numbers are released in over a month’s time so we can compare everything more easily. 

Did you watch the first two episodes of “The Acolyte”?  Let me know on social media!

* A view is defined as total stream time divided by runtime.

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

View all posts