2021 was a great year for the MCU. They released a full slate of original shows like WandaVision, Hawkeye, Loki, What If…?, and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
Marvel has more new shows in store for 2022, with Moon Knight kicking off the slate. But Disney’s other big franchise is on track to have a big year as well.
Lucasfilm has just finished airing The Book of Boba Fett, and the next show in store is Obi-Wan Kenobi. After that, there will be The Bad Batch season 2, Andor, and possibly The Mandalorian season 3.
Star Wars’ Disney+ return began technically in December 2021 with the studio’s second live-action show ever, The Book of Boba Fett.
Starring Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen in lead roles, The Book of Boba Fett follows the bounty hunter’s rise as the desert planet Tatooine’s newest Daimyo.
The show’s critical reception started out positive, but over time it became mixed, and that too, at best. You know things are bad when two of the most popular episodes of the show barely even involve the main character at all.
But regardless, it looks like everyone wanted to see how the show would conclude, and as per stats, the viewership for Disney+ Star Wars content has never been bigger.
Book of Boba Fett’s Final Episode Sets New Record
Deadline reported that The Book of Boba Fett’s finale currently holds the highest viewership record for a Star Wars finale on Disney+. It has been watched by 1.5 million U.S. households.
Note that these viewership numbers come from Samba TV. It just measures households with a smart TV. Also, it only measures those households who watch an episode for a minimum of 5 minutes.
As for The Book of Boba Fett, Samba TV tracked the performance stats for the finale from Wednesday, February 9 (premiere date) to Sunday, February 13.
The Book of Boba Fett’s seventh episode, titled “In the Name of Honor,” was a conclusion to the titular character’s story. It also followed the 6th episode of the show that featured Grogu, Din, Luke Skywalker, and Ahsoka Tano.
Not to mention that it also introduced Cad Bane into live-action for the first time since his animated debut. Now, we know that the finale of the show received the worst rating of the whole season on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, the episode’s 1.5 million viewership number was a solid 36% higher than the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian (1.1 million). Mando’s final episode was tracked from December 18 through December 22.
Even though The Book of Boba Fett’s finale now holds the highest viewership for a Star Wars Disney+ series, it failed to overcome the viewership of the top Marvel show, Loki. It had 1.9 million viewers when tracked from July 14, 2021, to July 18, 2021.
How Did The Book Of Boba Fett Emerge On Top?
Now, these numbers might be surprising to some considering the lackluster reception of the finale of The Book of Boba Fett. But there are explanations for these high numbers.
First of all, we need to remember that The Mandalorian season 2’s finale premiered on a Friday in December 2020. Now, The Book of Boba Fett’s finale debuted on a Wednesday in February 2020.
This mid-week release model was adopted by Disney before Loki’s 2021 debut. And this seems to have worked well for House of Mouse.
So even though the Boba Fett finale had to fight with Super Bowl LVI on its final tracking day, it probably didn’t have much competition for a long time due to the Wednesday release.
In comparison, The Mandalorian season 2 premiered right at the beginning of the weekend. Also, it debuted straight in the very middle of the holiday season.
Another thing to consider is that Disney+ has increased the number of its subscribers. Now it has 42.9 million subs between just Canada and U.S. Also, Boba Fett’s penultimate episode was jam-packed with cameos that made it trend going into its finale week.
So regardless of how critics and fans felt about Boba Fett show as well as its conclusion, these numbers show that the demand for Star Wars live-action shows is increasing. And it will likely keep on increasing and reaching new heights.
The first season of The Book of Boba Fett is available to stream on Disney+.
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