Percy Jackson Seizes Top Spot, Ends Gen V’s Three-Month Reign (Streaming Wars, January 2024)
Plus, popular new debuts continue to fuel high turnover on the leaderboards, with eight of the Top 20 shows debuting in January.
Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a certified hit, soaring to the #1 spot after debuting at #15 in December. Even more impressive, the show was #2 overall in January — the only show with more Engagement last month was Breaking Bad. Percy Jackson earned more Engagement than Stranger Things, Wednesday, or The Night Agent, Netflix’s most-watched show in the first half of 2023. And it achieved all this with a sentiment score of 92%, the fourth-highest score on the Top 20 in January.
This young adult fiction adaptation doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, but the same can’t be said for the rest of the leaderboards. January was characterized by even more volatility than December, with eight of the Top 20 shows being debuts. Of the shows that were on the leaderboards in November, just six made it to last month. This lack of stability doesn’t appear to benefit any one streamer, although Hulu and Disney both saw their recent good luck continue with strong debuts from Death and Other Details and Echo.
THE LEADERBOARDS: TOP SHOWS
Photo: A Murder at the End of the World, FX
Behind Disney+’s very successful series, Hulu scored a victory of its own with A Murder at the End of the World, an FX mystery that premiered in November but got a sudden rise in interest last month. This is the highest-ranked show to stream on Hulu since August of 2022, when Only Murders in the Building claimed the top spot. Between this show, Only Murders in the Building, and Death and Other Details, the whodunit is proving to be a winning formula for the streamer.
Other shows that bounced back after a lackluster December include Disney+ shows Ahsoka and Secret Invasion, while The Fall of the House of Usher and Lessons in Chemistry slid considerably. Meanwhile, December Top 20 entries Bodies, The Continental, BlackBerry, and One Piece disappeared in January, as did promising premieres Obliterated, The Artful Dodger, and Squid Game: The Challenge. Right now, it seems that the only shows guaranteed at least some kind of shelf life on the leaderboards are Marvel and Star Wars shows, and even those are bound for plenty of ups and downs along the way.
Blue Eye Samurai enjoyed an improbable late rise to #8, despite a middling sentiment score of 72% — its Engagement totals were largely made up of searches and Watchlist adds.
THE LEADERBOARDS: TOP PLATFORMS
Photo: Reacher, Amazon Prime Video
Hulu again saw considerable gains in January, earning more than 13% of the month’s total Engagement and solidifying its lead over the increasingly competitive Amazon. With Netflix strengthening its own position and both Max and Amazon changing very little, whatever rumblings there had been of a shift among the Big 4 streamers seems to have died down. Amazon did have two shows on the Top 20, however, as well as a popular returning title in Reacher — time will tell if that translates to more progress on the leaderboards.
Meanwhile, Disney+’s successes on the Top 20 weren’t apparent from its share of total Engagement, which failed to change much from December. Peacock did manage to scrape back some of the share it lost in December, getting closer to 6% just months after reaching a peak of 7%. And Apple’s continued presence on the Top 20 still hasn’t been reflected on the Top Platforms chart. That’s dismaying, considering Napoleon and Killers of the Flower Moon were meant to grow the streamer’s subscriber base. Maybe Argylle will have better luck in February?
NEW PREMIERES
Photo: Fool Me Once, Netflix
Of the eight premieres on the Top 20 last month, the most popular is Fool Me Once, the Netflix thriller based on Harlan Coben’s novel, with a sentiment score of 94%. That’s followed by the 92% score notched by True Detective: Night Country, whose #11 spot is likely to improve once it has a whole month to compete in February. The Brothers Sun, Criminal Record, and Ted all got decent sentiment scores of 80% or higher, while Echo and Death and Other Details fell below that benchmark.
The highest-ranking debut, animated series Hazbin Hotel, didn’t get enough Likes, Loves, Favorites, or Dislikes to generate a reliable sentiment score. Its high Engagement levels come almost entirely from Watchlist adds and searches on the app. Hazbin Hotel has an Engagement level nearly identical to that of Cobra Kai’s. But Cobra Kai has nine times as many Likes as Hazbin Hotel; meanwhile, Hazbin has more than twice as many Watchlist adds and nearly seven times as many searches.That’s similar to the story for Blue Eye Samurai, which enjoyed an improbable late rise to #8, despite a middling sentiment score of 72%. Could it be that animation fans are hunting for new programming?
RETURNING SHOWS
Photo: The Act, Hulu
Since it’s technically its own series, True Detective: Night Country didn’t return so much as debut. Still, its sentiment score is slightly higher than that of the original True Detective, though the original is getting a bit more Engagement. Meanwhile, the returning Law & Orders notched decent Engagement levels for broadcast shows, with Organized Crime leading the pack — though Special Victims Unit boasts the highest sentiment score at 92%.
The real-life release of Gypsy Rose Blanchard sparked a new wave of interest in Hulu’s 2019 miniseries The Act, pushing it to #49 overall. Finally, Amazon’s beloved Reacher made a triumphant return, ranking #10 overall with a sentiment score of 94%.