The Force Is Strong With Obi-Wan Kenobi: Streaming Series Breaks Disney+ Records

The highly anticipated Star Wars original series focusing on the storyline of Obi-Wan Kenobi between the events of “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” and “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” dominated in viewership over the weekend. Here are the details.

What Happened: With its first two episodes released on May 27, 2022, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” set a new record for Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS) and its Disney+ streaming platform.

“Thank you to the best fans in the galaxy for making #ObiWanKenobi the most-watched @disneyplus original series premiere globally to date, based on hours streamed in an opening weekend,” the Star Wars Twitter account tweeted.

Based on the tweet from the Star Wars account, the first two episodes of “Obi-Wan Kenobi” helped the show soar past “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett” and Marvel series that have been released on the streaming platform.

Disney did not share official numbers for the show. Data from Samba TV shows that 2.14 million U.S. households of those it tracks watched the first episode of “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” as reported by Deadline.

Samba TV previously reported that “The Mandalorian” season 2 premiere had 2.08 million households watching and “The Book of Boba Fett” premiere had 1.5 million households watching.

The 2.14 million figure compares to 2.9 million U.S. households that watched the premiere episode of “Stranger Things” season 4 on Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX).

Netflix reported that the fourth season of “Stranger Things” saw its seven episodes break the record for an English-language series premiere on the streaming platform, with 287 million hours viewed in the opening weekend.

Related Link: Stranger Things Shatters A Netflix Record With Fourth Season: What Fans And Investors Should Know 

Why It’s Important: Disney continues to bet heavily and invest in original content from its franchises for its Disney+ streaming platform.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi” is the latest original series set in the Star Wars universe and one of many to come based on recent announcements at Star Wars Celebration.

Thanks to the success of “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” viewership for other Star Wars titles tripled in hours watched during the past weekend.

Data from Nielsen Holdings (NYSE: NLSN) released in the future could show how close Disney is to the viewership for “Stranger Things.” The comparison will be apples to oranges with Netflix releasing seven episodes of “Stranger Things” including some that were longer than traditional shows and Disney releasing only the first two episodes of “Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

“Obi-Wan Kenobi” is set to have six episodes with new episodes hitting Disney+ every Wednesday from June 1 to June 22. The show could gain in viewership with fans eager to see the highly anticipated reunion of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader on the small screen.

DIS Price Action: Disney shares are down 1.54% to $108.74 on Wednesday.

Photo courtesy of Disney.