Series Finale

Succession (2018)

Lower Numbers

On Sunday night, May 28th, SUCCESSION's final episode hit an all-time viewership record for the series, at 3 million viewers. This, however, falls behind other Max/HBO hit shows, according to Forbes.

Of course, those numbers read especially low after the phenomenal success of GAME OF THRONES, which amassed, in 2019, 46 million viewers in its final season (CNN Business), and 19 million just in the last episode. 

Good Times

To compare apples to apples, MAX has four current series that make more than 15 million viewers per episode: HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, EUPHORIA, THE WHITE LOTUS, and THE LAST OF US (read more details here) 

But even those numbers are low compared with the previous years and decades.

Memory Lane

In 1983, MASH's season finale attracted 105 million viewers just in the US, almost half of its population. Fifteen years later, Seinfeld amassed 76 million spectators. Friends, in 2003, got 52 million fans sobbing at its ending episode. LOST got to 13 million people in 2010. 

We can conclude that the decline of unified viewership has been slow and steady: the audience grew in a divided fashion. 

Audience Spike

All things considered, we need to acknowledge that, during the first year of the pandemic, the total of online video subscriptions increased by more than 14%, totaling 1.3 billion people, according to the Motion Picture Association (great report, by the way, worth taking a peek).

In 2023, the number of users is estimated at 2 billion people – a quarter of the world's current population. But despite the increase in viewers, people are watching multiple streaming services, each offering numerous options, which has therefore scattered the audience.

More Platforms

From 2019 to 2023 we had a bloom of new platforms, going from a handful of popular services (YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO) to more players, adding heavy contestants such as Disney +, Peacock, Paramount, and Apple TV+ (Statista has the numbers). Therefore, the multiplication of options can also account for part of the audience's dissipation. 

Freedom to Choose

What all those numbers point out is a more democratic landscape for the audience. After many decades of linear programming, viewers can finally decide what they want to watch, when, and how.

If you want to find out about more ways to stand out in this ocean of content, shoot us an email.

Cheers,

Laura