Disney+ said “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” was the streaming service’s biggest launch in its brief history. Now we have some numbers to back that up, thanks to Nielsen.
During the week of March 15-21, “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” drew 495 million minutes for its premiere episode and placed seventh on Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming programs. That was up from the 434 million minutes viewed for “WandaVision” over its premiere weekend in January. “WandaVision” debuted with two episodes on Jan. 15, while “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” premiered with one episode on March 19.
“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” which heads into its fifth episode this week, also placed second on Nielsen’s Originals-only list, behind Netflix’s “Ginny & Georgia,” which made all 10 of its episodes available on Feb. 24.
“Grey’s Anatomy” led all streaming TV shows and movies with 673 million minutes watched.
Though it provided no hard numbers, Disney+ touted “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” as its most-watched series premiere ever since its November 2019 launch, as well as the most-watched debut of any kind on the streaming service globally, including in Disney+ Hotstar markets.
That means it was bigger than both season premieres of “The Mandalorian” as well as “WandaVision.”
“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” had the benefit of more available subscribers than the other two, given that Disney+ only surpassed 100 million subscribers last month. “WandaVision” debuted on Jan. 15 and “The Mandalorian” returned for its second season last fall. Still, it appears that Marvel Studios’ move into streaming has been welcomed by Disney+ subscribers (not that there was much doubt of that being the case).