Nearly six weeks in, viewers can finally have a clue of just how well Marvel Studios' She-Hulk has been doing so far, and the result shows a rather underwhelming performance from Disney Plus' latest superhero series.
The data comes courtesy of Nielsen's dedicated streaming charts, whose results ranging from August 15 through 21 show that She-Hulk failed to make the top 10 for original content, a notable first for anything Marvel. Previously, the only data related to the series that had surfaced came from Samba TV, which claimed at least 1.5 million households in the United States had tuned in to watch She-Hulk in the four days following its August 18 premiere. However, Nielsen's analytics are often considered the industry standard.
In short, Nielsen's numbers can definitely rule out that She-Hulk got at least 395 million minutes worth of viewership, as the last show on the top 10 list was Netflix's Instant Dream Home with that exact total. As usual, Nielsen's top-ranking shows are mostly Netflix exclusives, with The Sandman, Stranger Things, Never Have I Ever, and Locke & Key towering above the competition. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime Video's reimagined A League of Their Own series and Hulu's Only Murders in the Build prevent absolute hegemony from Netflix.
When it comes to absolute totals, Netflix's Day Shift was the most-viewed content overall. Reliable acquired properties like NCIS and Grey's Anatomy also performed well for the streamer, whereas Disney Plus' sole representative is the children’s show Bluey. Suffice it to say, the data is not enough to prove that She-Hulk is the worst-performing MCU series so far, as Ms. Marvel made the charts by attaining just 259 million minutes of viewership towards the beginning of summer.
Even though these numbers are inconclusive at best, Nielsen's data had proved to be accurate in the past, and it does signal a marked downtrend for Disney Plus' recent MCU shows. For example, Marvel Studios' most successful series is Loki, which garnered 731 million minutes when it premiered in June 2021, and Hawkeye totalled 853 million minutes in November. Conversely, even among the newcomers, Moon Knight nailed a top 6 spot on Nielsen's rankings with 418 million minutes, despite being the worst performer at the time.
Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and She-Hulk all dealt with instances of review brigading, and although the former two managed to recover, Jennifer Walters' solo adventure remains the worst-rated MCU show by a long margin, perhaps suggesting fans are not digging She-Hulk's superhero sitcom style.
She-Hulk is currently available on Disney Plus.
Source: Nielsen