Image: Arcane, Netflix
This week, November 13 - 19, Spongebob Squarepants remained the most in-demand series in the US with 69.1 times the average series demand. Saturday Night Live held onto its second place spot from last week, with 62.3 times the average series demand, followed by Sesame Street, which also held onto its place from last week with 51.8 times the demand average.
The Flash was 38.3 times more in-demand than the average series this week, an impressive 25% increase from last week. This increase came as the show’s eighth season premiered on November 16. The first episode, Armageddon, Part 1, which is part of a five-episode “Armageddon” event, has fan anticipation at an all-time high after it was revealed that it would showcase ‘The Flash’ doing things that both fans and showrunner Eric Wallace have waited eight years for.
Among digital originals, Stranger Things was pushed down to the second place spot to make way for Netflix’s new hit- Arcane. Demand for the new animated show shot up by an incredible 43% following the release of its fourth, fifth and sixth episode on November 13, giving it 46.6 times more demand than the average series in the US. The series is another step in Riot Games’ path to expanding the League of Legends franchise. Last month, over 180 million people played the online game, and with more episodes on the way, we expect to see Arcane at the top of the demand data charts with strong audience demand for the next few weeks.
Another impressive increase was for Star Trek: Discovery, which was up by 30% this week. This increase comes as the first episode of the show’s fourth season premiered on November 18. There was some controversy before the expected release of the series, after Netflix lost the rights to the show and fans were outraged to have to subscribe to yet another service, Paramount+, to watch the series. However, it seems that the move has not affected the demand for the series, and may just be a good subscriber driver for Paramount+.
Rounding out the ten most in-demand digital originals this week is Hulu’s Animaniacs. It had 24.8 times the average series demand, a 12% decrease from last week. The drop in demand for the series is not unexpected, as its second season premiered over 2 weeks ago, on November 5.
