New data pointed to The Mandalorian Season 3 suffering declining demand while struggling to match the interest of Seasons 1 and 2 on Disney+.
Ahead of Season 3, excitement ran high to see Din Djarin and Grogu's adventures continue after The Mandalorian's second season shattered records at the end of 2020 before the Pedro Pascal-led epic took some time away. The hype even allowed Season 3's trailer to shatter Star Wars viewership records.
But unfortunately, The Mandalorian Season 3 has proven divisive among audiences and may have even faced a struggling premiere that failed to live up to Star Wars' other Disney+ offerings.
The Mandalorian Season 3 Interest Drops to All-Time Low
According to data from Parrot Analytics, shared via The Wrap, The Mandalorian Season 3 is suffering a drop in interest to have now reached a season-long low.
The data also revealed how Season 3 failed to match the peaks of the first two seasons so far, with the season currently six episodes into its eight-episode run.
In general, Season 3 seems to be hovering around the same level as Season 2, although recent days appear to be showing a slight downward trend, while last season was spiking up to season-high peaks around this point. That being said, neither of the follow-up seasons has come close to that of Season 1.
Parrot Analytics rates a show's demand based on the combined desire, engagement, and viewership on social media services, as well as the audience activity on other platforms such as Wikipedia or free streaming sites.
Once this demand figure has been calculated, it is then displayed as a multiple of the given show's demand compared to that of the average show over the same period of time.
Season 3 peaked upon the release of its premiere and has since seen a gradual decline, with the demand at the debut of Episode 5, "The Pirate," coming in at an all-time low for the day of a new Mandalorian episode, excluding the show's very first installment in December 2019.
When Season 3 is put side-by-side with other shows in their first 30 days of airing, the decline of The Mandalorian becomes clearer. Season 1 still stands as Star Wars' Disney+ peak with a demand of 99.2x the average, dropping to 70.1x for Season 2, and a new low of 68.8x for Season 3.
However, Mando continues to place far above everything else Star Wars has brought to Disney+, with its closest competition coming with the 40.1x demand of The Clone Wars Season 7 - a show which was boosted by its long six-season run, established fanbase, and the high anticipation for the final season.
So far, the lowest demand offering Star Wars has brought to Disney+ comes with 2021's animated The Bad Batch Season 1 at just 16x.
But this isn't the first data to suggest weakened interest in The Mandalorian Season 3, as data collected by Samba TV from a panel of three million US households across 35 million TVs similarly pointed to a drop.
That data suggested, based on the premiere alone, that viewership exceeded Andor by around 50%, but still sat behind Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett by 28% and 2%, respectively.
Samba TV's analysis pointed to the premiere being viewed by just under 1.5 million US households, by comparison, Season 2's debut was estimated to have been seen by around 2.08 million.
Why the Mandalorian Season 3 Is Struggling Against Past Seasons
Upon its debut, The Mandalorian was a cultural phenomenon as one of the first movie-level-budget shows to come out of a huge, established big-screen franchise. In the years since, that has become far more normal, with most cinematic universes now looking to expand into the ever-growing streaming game.
Back then, The Mandalorian was Disney+'s only blockbuster original, but in the time since, Star Wars dropped three more live-action shows, and Marvel Studios came out with seven more of its own. Even Season 2 of the premium galactic show came around a month before the MCU delivered its first offering.
As a whole, at that time, Disney+ subscribers had little other blockbuster content to watch and minimal reason to stay signed on, so why wouldn't they be tuning in every week for The Mandalorian? But nowadays, not only do Marvel and Star Wars have plenty to offer, but so do other streaming services as more continue to emerge, including an all-new HBO Max relaunch from Warner Bros. Discovery.
Granted, that's not to say it's impossible The Mandalorian has seen a decline in interest, as there does seem to be a general consensus the show has seen a dip in quality, especially as Din Djarin appears to have less screentime, likely due to Pedro Pascal's overlapping production schedule with The Last of Us.
While Season 2 was on the up-and-up around this point as speculation around a Jedi cameo was running wild, Ahsoka had just made her live-action debut, and Boba Fett had just made his comeback, Season 3 hasn't had much similar fan service to offer, for better or for worse.
With Parrot Analytics' data being based on online and social media engagement, fan service does drive viral discussion, so this may be having an impact on this data. But with Samba TV's numbers also pointing to a weak premiere, it seems a number of factors may have hurt The Mandalorian this time around. Although, clearly, it's still a huge hit, with interest way beyond every other Star Wars show.
The first six episodes of The Mandalorian are streaming now, exclusively on Disney+.
