Insights

Breakout Shows (November 13 - 19): Arcane takes the top spot

24 November, 2021

In this article we look at the top breakout shows of the past week. Breakout shows are the most in-demand series that have premiered in the past 100 days.

This week the latest hit from Netflix, Arcane, ended the weeks-long run of Squid Game at the top of the chart.  The animated series, which is based on the League of Legends universe and serves as a prequel to the game, has been able to tap into demand from the existing League of Legends fanbase and also appeal to casual viewers.  The show released episodes in batches over the past 3 weeks, a departure from Netflix’s usual all-at-once episode drops.  The sustained demand growth for this show points to the benefits of this release strategy.

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The long-awaited Wheel of Time adaptation from Amazon Prime Video premiered on November 19th and ranked as the 4th most in-demand breakout series this week with 22.7 times the average series demand.  Pre-release demand for this show has been extremely high as fans of the book series are eagerly anticipating the show.  In fact, four days ahead of its premiere, global demand for this show was 13% higher than it was for The Witcher at the same point before its season one premiere.  This is a good indicator the show has the potential to be a massive hit for Amazon.

Demand for Dopesick was up by 10.8% this week following the finale which was released on November 17th.  Demand for the Hulu original has remained consistently high throughout its first month as episodes have been released weekly.

Just making it into the top 10 breakout shows this week with 17.7 times the average series demand is Ghosts, the new sitcom from CBS.  While some shows have engineered successful premieres by adapting video game (Arcane) or book IP (The Wheel of Time), Ghosts adapted a British sitcom of the same name for American audiences.



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