The Mandalorian wrapped up season two almost a month ago and with the announcement of The Book of Boba Fett, the earliest fans can expect to tune in for season three will be December 2021. However, before going on break The Mandalorian delivered a first for Disney Plus, a victory over Netflix.
Since late August, Nielsen started making public its U.S. streaming rankings which are considered to be the industry standard for most forms of media from TV to videogames. So far the rankings have consistently shown Netflix’s early start in the industry and its huge subscriber base of nearly 200 million users, with Netflix offerings dominating the charts on a week to week basis, save for a few exceptions from Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video.
According to Nielsen, which shares its numbers with a small delay and only accounts for content streamed from TVs, The Mandalorian narrowly managed to beat Netflix’s long-standing champion The Office. The Mandalorian was the only non-Netflix entry in the week running from December 14 to 20, with the small caveat of premiering its episodes on a weekly basis, unlike the vast majority of its rivals which are usually available to binge on from day one.
Riding the wave of its exciting season finale, The Mandalorian closed out 2020 great fashion, joined by usual Netflix suspects like The Crown, Grey’s Anatomy, Manhunt: Deadly Games, Supernatural, Virgin River, Criminal Minds and Schitt’s Creek, with A California Christmas chipping on from the movie segment.
Beginning in 2021, Netflix will see The Office leave its platform and though the company has plenty of other exclusives to make up for its absence, it still represents a big blow ratings-wise. January has seen Cobra Kai rise as Netflix's hottest novelty, while WandaVision began its journey to take over from The Mandalorian as Disney Plus’ biggest service seller with great media buzz on its side.
Though numbers wise the market still makes it hard for any non-Netflix content to creep up too high in U.S. rankings, The Mandalorian shows great promise for disruption for Disney Plus and other companies, even with just over a third of the potential viewers.
Source: Nielsen