The latest Star Wars streaming series, Obi-Wan Kenobi, accomplished many things. It brought back Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen to the roles that made them famous. It gave fans a look at the rematch between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader. And it offered further context to events and dialogue in both the original and sequel trilogies.
When it premiered in late May, Obi-Wan Kenobi broke Disney+ viewership records to become the platform's most-watched show globally. This was mostly to be expected though, as McGregor's Obi-Wan is extremely popular among the fanbase, and any Star Wars installment that brings him back would obviously experience a bump in viewership.
But now that the series has wrapped up and released all of its six episodes, where does viewership stand?
Kenobi Breaks Another Record
According to data from Samba TV (via Deadline), the number of Disney+ users watching the finale of Obi-Wan Kenobi surpassed that of The Book of Boba Fett's final episode. While Book of Boba drew about 1.5 million viewers in a five-day time span with its finale, Kenobi did 20% better with 1.8 million in the same timeframe. This makes Kenobi's concluding episode the highest-viewed Star Wars finale yet on Disney+.
Typically, there's a dropoff in viewership between the first episode of a given Star Wars or MCU show on Disney+ and the finale. Obi-Wan Kenobi was no exception, bringing in approximately 2.14 million viewers and leaving off with the aforementioned 1.5M by the series' end.
It's important to note that Samba TV's data is based on users who view a given show for five minutes or more, so the data could also account for those who watched the first part of a series for a few minutes and then turned it off and moved onto something else.
Additionally, for comparison's sake, the finale for season two of The Mandalorian drew 1.1 million viewers back in December of 2020 over a five-day period.
Obi-Wan Kenobi Series Succeeds on Disney+
Granted, The Book of Boba Fett was an extremely contrasting series to Obi-Wan Kenobi and differed with its episode allotment.
By the time The Book of Boba Fett reached its last installment, the show had already taken a drastic detour to focus solely on Din Djarin and Grogu for two episodes. And while that may have delighted many audience members, others were decidedly put off, given that the show was supposed to be about Boba Fett. Not to mention that the series' final chapter wasn't especially well-received by some, which hurts viewership overall.
But the far more probable reason for the uptick in Obi-Wan Kenobi's ratings was, as mentioned above, that fans adore Ewan McGregor's take on the legendary Jedi. The idea that Lucasfilm decided to create an entire series centered around him has historically excited fans, so they were always going to tune in.
What's more, is that "Part VI" of Obi-Wan Kenobi was arguably the strongest episode and saw a satisfying resolution to all of the major story arcs, so all that guaranteed more butts in seats, as it were.
All six episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are now streaming exclusively on Disney+.
