Following the dismal ratings for the two-episode premiere, Nielsen has released the viewership numbers for the week Episode 3 of The Acolyte was released revealing the ratings are still tracking lower than Ahsoka.
As I previously pointed out, the budget for The Acolyte is basically twice that of Ahoska.
The Acolyte is the second least-watched and second lowest-rated Star Wars series on Disney+, only trailing Andor. It will be interesting to see what happens as viewership numbers are released for additional episodes.
Nielsen numbers for the week Episode 3 was released
Nielsen, the industry standard, measures all the available episodes within a given week’s timeframe. The Acolyte Episode 3 was released June 11. Nielsen’s numbers cover the week of June 10 to June 16, which The Acolyte had three episodes available to watch.
Following the two-episode premiere having 488 minutes (millions), the week Episode 3 was released dropped to 370.
We don’t know the individual episode numbers, as again, The Acolyte released two episodes the first week, and it’s probably safe to assume there is some carry over to week three. As the Nielsen data gets released each week, we’ll know more. The numbers for The Acolyte could actually dip lower.
The Acolyte compared to Ahsoka
For a comparison, let’s use Ahsoka, which also released its first two episodes at once followed by a single third episode (as did Ob-Wan but there is no comparison – see below).
Ahsoka scored a 829 Nielsen rating for the first two episodes. With the third episode released, Ahsoka dropped to 487. That number actually fits with the average of the first two episodes, but is a tad higher, again, likely because of some carry over to week three.
Ahsoka‘s week four Nielsen numbers? 459 (had that cool fight with Baylin, best episode of the series, IMO), and Ahoska saw a big bump to 577 with week five featuring Anakin.
The Acolyte did have that big lightsaber battle in its own Episode 5, so again, it will be interesting to see if there is a bump in viewership down the road. However, how many fans bailed after the first three episodes? Especially after Episode 3 which, similar to Episode 7, is really bad.
Here is Nielsen numbers for the first three episodes of each Star Wars series on Disney+ (Mando Season 2 unavailable):
The Mandalorian S2:
- first episode: 1032
- w/2 episodes released: 955
- w/3 episodes released: 873
The Book of Boba Fett:
- first ep: 389
- w/2: 563
- w/3: 467
The Mandalorian S3:
- first: 823
- w/2: 889
- w/3: 1,115
Obi-Wan Kenobi:
- first two: 1,026
- w/3: 958
Ahsoka:
- first two: 829
- w/3: 487
Andor:
- first three episodes: 624
The Acolyte:
- first two: 488
- w/3: 370
