Disney says Ahsoka is very popular
Depending on who you ask, Ahsoka is either doing very good or very, very good
Disney+’s latest Star Wars spin-off show, Ahsoka, just premiered last week, and the streaming service has proudly announced that the show is its number one title worldwide and that it was the most-watched title on Disney+ in the past week. Disney says that the first episode of Ahsoka got 14 million views, with a “view” being defined as “total stream time divided by runtime available” (according to a press release)—which means if you watch the whole thing that’s one view, but if you watch half and another person watches half, that also counts as one view.
In a statement, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy said that “it’s wonderful to see [Ahsoka Tano] continue to resonate with viewers in her very own headlining series,” and she highlighted the “fantastic work” done by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau (architects of the live-action Star Wars TV universe) and series star Rosario Dawson.
Interestingly, Deadline says that the researchers at Samba TV determined that the first episode of Ahsoka was viewed in “1.2 million households,” which is quite a bit less than the 14 million that Disney is offering—though that could be explained in any number of ways, including Samba’s sample size/algorithm, the potential of people rewatching the show, or maybe tons of people watching only a bit of the show so it adds up to a certain number of views without necessarily increasing the number of “households.”
But beyond all of that, it is—as always—worth noting with stuff like this that none of it means anything. The 14 million comes from Disney itself, and it’s in the studio’s best interest to make that number as big as possible, so without being corroborated by a third party, there’s no reason to put too much stock in that number alone. What matters is the messaging more than anything, which is that Disney wants everyone to know that Ahsoka is a big hit (regardless of how specifically big it is).
The reason that matters is that everything these big Hollywood studios do during the strikes is worth reading into, especially when both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are demanding to get more transparency about viewership numbers from these streaming companies. Disney is perfectly happy and willing to share that information when it means bragging about how well Ahsoka is doing, but not when it comes to paying the writers and actors who make things like Ahsoka happen.