Earlier this week, Disney released the first two episodes of its new live-action series, “Star Wars: The Acolyte” on Disney+ around the world.

The series features an investigation into a shocking crime spree that pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems….

Disney has revealed that the first episode of the series pulled in 4.8 million views on its first day around the world, and this means it is the biggest series premiere on Disney+ this year.

It’s rare that Disney announces viewership data for a series, let alone on how shows have done on their debut.  If a new Disney+ release has done well, it sometimes reveals the viewership for the first four or five days, so it can be a little hard to compare like for like with previous original releases. 

The last big Star Wars series was “Ahsoka”, which pulled 14 million views in its first five days, so “The Acolyte” could shoot past that if it has a boost in viewership over the weekend.  The show is getting lots of attention on social media, with lots of fans enjoying it. However, it’s also suffering from lots of online hate, with Rotten Tomatoes being review bombed by viewers who consider the show “woke”.

Earlier this week, Disney revealed that the season five premiere of “The Kardashians” pulled in 3.9 million views globally across Hulu, Disney+ and Star+ in the first four days and that was the most-watched unscripted series premiere this year on all Disney streaming platforms. 

While ‘Shōgun’ was the number one scripted general entertainment series premiere globally, with 9 million views across Hulu, Disney+ and Star+ over six days.  So, when compared to these major releases, “The Acolyte” has already proven to be a big hit, after just one day!

We won’t know how “The Acolyte” has performed from an independent outlet like Nielsen or Samba TV for a while, to see how it has compared to other major new releases on other platforms and previous Disney+ Original releases.

The first two episodes of “Star Wars: The Acolyte” are available to stream on Disney+ now, and a new episode is being released each Tuesday evening at 6pm PT/9pm ET.

Roger’s Take:  It’s great to see how many have checked out “The Acolyte”, as I also really enjoyed it, but the big test is going to be over the next few weeks to see if audiences return for more episodes.  It’s also worth highlighting that while we are now half way through the year, due to Disney reducing the amount of major new series, the only other title released on Disney+ this year has been “Echo”.  So it’s unlike previous years where we saw multiple Marvel and Star Wars shows released, almost back to back.

Did you check out “The Acolyte” yet?  Let me know on social media!

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

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