X-Men ’97 is back on Disney+, and so are its ratings problems, as Season 2 has failed to make the Nielsen streaming charts.
The first three episodes of Season 2 debuted on July 1, but the series is nowhere to be found in Nielsen’s Originals latest streaming top ten covering June 29 through July 5, a window that gave the episodes five days to make the cut.
X-Men ’97 Lands Under Ms. Rachel
The cutoff for the week is Netflix’s preschool series Ms. Rachel, which landed at #10 with 331 million minutes viewed.
That means X-Men ’97 Season 2 came in somewhere under that, so each of the three episodes averaged under 110 million minutes.
The average could even be lower, as Nielsen covers all available episodes; if fans binge-watched Season 1 in preparation for Season 2, that would lower the Season 2 episode numbers.
For comparison, Love Island USA topped the week with 1.944 billion minutes, followed by Netflix’s I Will Find You with 1.101 billion and Avatar: The Last Airbender with 1.098 billion.
Netflix filled six of the ten spots, and Disney+’s only appearance on the chart comes via Love Island USA, which it shares with Paramount+ and Peacock.
Sound familiar? It should, as Season 1 also failed to chart, including for its season finale.
Season 2 Deserves Better
Here’s the kicker: this time around, quality isn’t the problem.
Season 2 is a great series and better than Season 1, as it’s a 10/10.
Disney’s Marvel Problems Continue
The Mutants aren’t alone, as Daredevil: Born Again also failed to chart, going 0-for-17 on Nielsen across two seasons, and Disney just canceled Wonder Man after announcing Season 2.
What happened is poor quality content, not too much of it, sent fans packing, as superhero fatigue is a myth.
Marvel burned through years of goodwill on Disney+, and now even when something as good as X-Men ’97 Season 2 shows up, the audience isn’t there to watch it.
That said, Disney at least knows what it has got, as additional seasons of X-Men ’97 are in development, including Seasons 3 and 4, as announced recently at Comic-Con.
