The Disney+ Star Wars Universe: Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, or Tales of the Jedi - Which Title Performed Best?

It all started over 45 years ago, “in a galaxy far, far away,” with George Lucas’s movie, Star Wars (renamed in 1981 to Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope). The epic space opera immediately captivated fans, became a worldwide blockbuster, and today, Star Wars is both a global pop-culture phenomenon and the world’s second-highest-grossing film franchise, with a global box office revenue of $10.32 billion.

With such a lucrative franchise at hand, Disney has been striking while the iron is hot. Within the last 12 months alone (December 2021–December 2022), four Star Wars-themed TV series have premiered on Disney+. The new year brought us the second season of The Bad Batch, an animated series whose first two episodes hit the platform on January 4.

Yet only Andor managed to nab two 2023 Critics’ Choice Awards nominations, followed by a Golden Globe nom for Diego Luna’s outstanding performance as the titular character. As we mentioned in one of our previous posts, the series had strong viewership numbers in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

But is Andor the audience favorite? We compared our Disney+ viewership numbers for Andor along with The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Tales of the Jedi to answer this question. Which of the titles gathered the largest audience in the United States?

Let’s dive in!

To start, we stacked each series’s Disney+ performance numbers side by side, focusing on our standard Showlabs metrics: Share of Viewing (SoV), Unique Viewers (UV), Total Hours Watched (THW), and Average Time Spent (ATS):

The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and Tales of the Jedi Performance on Disney+, December 1, 2021–December 1, 2022, United States

Obi-Wan Kenobi attracted the biggest audience (33.1M UVs and 11.87% SoV) during the year, beating the 30.4M UVs and 10.92% SoV of The Book of Boba Fett – which has been in the Disney+ library for the longest time (since December 29, 2021). Andor was next, with 20.8M UVs, which means that 7.48% of all active Disney+ profiles followed Cassian Andor on the bumpy road to joining the rebellion.

When it comes to Total Hours Watched, The Book of Boba Fett led with 60.7M THW, followed by Andor with 54.9M THW. Obi-Wan Kenobi was watched for roughly 5M hours less, capturing 49.7M THW.

One reason for this may be the series’s length: Andor consists of 12 episodes with runtime varying between 38 to 57 minutes. For comparison, Obi-Wan has 6 episodes (39–56 minutes each), and The Book of Boba Fett – only 7 (39–61 minutes).

The most recent franchise Tales of the Jedi, an animated mini-series (with a runtime of around 13–17 minutes per episode), fell far behind the other titles, managing to reach only 2.87% SoV or 8.0M UVs, and 5.9M THW.

Since every new successful series gains momentum after its premiere, let’s compare the series’ viewership numbers in the first 7, 28, and 90 days on Disney+. Because Tales of the Jedi has been available for less than 90 days, we’ve excluded the series from the 90-day comparison. It’s worth mentioning that The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Andor followed a typical weekly release schedule, while all 6 episodes of Tales of the Jedi premiered at once.

The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and Tales of the Jedi 7-,28- and 90-Day Unique Viewers (UV), United States

To paraphrase from the franchise itself, “Hello there, Obi-Wan Kenobi.” The series’s Disney+ performance stands out in the Star Wars crowd. Almost 10M Americans watched the show within its first 7 days on the platform, and the number more than doubled in the weeks following. For comparison, Andor’s premiere gathered 6.0M UVs. Surprisingly, the results of “the best Star Wars show yet” are comparable with those of The Book of Boba Fett, which gained 5.1M UVs (7-day), 12.2M UVs (28-day), and 25.3M UVs (90-day).

Whether it was due to fans' disinterest – weary from the numerous spin-offs of late – or a release date that competed with HBO's House of the Dragon and Prime Video's The Rings of Power, Andor, fell somewhere in the middle when it comes to the Disney+ viewership numbers, despite all the critical acclaim.

This leads us to ask: Will Andor’s second season, which will segue into the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, gain more traction on Disney+? As co-writer and creator of the series Tony Gilroy explained to The Wrap, we should expect the second season no earlier than Fall 2024. We will keep our finger on the pulse.

PlumResearch specializes in precise and granular data measurement from streaming platforms. It has the world’s largest online audience panel and provides its clients with data from over 75 markets worldwide.

Through Showlabs - the proprietary platform created by PlumResearch - the company’s clients can find out how shows and movies are performing worldwide and track what exactly contributes to their success. Showlabs provides clients with accurate data, in-depth insights, and a reliable customer support team.