One Piece Gives Netflix Another Streaming Victory Over Disney
Netflix has showcased its dominance in the streaming arena with its live-action adaptation of One Piece. Premiering on August 31, the series amassed a staggering 1.31 billion minutes of viewing in its United States debut week. Meanwhile, Disney’s Ahsoka saw a substantial decline in viewership, drawing only 487 million minutes of watch time compared to its premiere week numbers of 829 million minutes.
Netflix’s live-action One Piece beat out Disney’s Ahsoka in weekly viewership during both series’ debut.
To put One Piece’s viewership figures into perspective, 1.31 billion minutes translate to a jaw-dropping 21.85 million hours of viewing, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This impressive feat signifies nearly 16 percent of the global total Netflix reported in its top 10 rankings for the same week (August 28 to September 3.) This success is particularly noteworthy when compared to all the competition.
Who Is Erin Carter? raked in 1.02 billion minutes during the same week, securing the second spot in the original series rankings. However, Netflix’s streaming supremacy isn’t solely attributed to One Piece. The legal drama Suits continued its reign at the top of the overall charts, accumulating a whopping 2.45 billion minutes of viewing on both Netflix and Peacock.
“We have hopes for 12 seasons, there’s so much material.”
Marty Adelstein, One Piece producer
This marked the 11th consecutive week in which Suits claimed the top spot in Nielsen’s streaming rankings. This achievement tied it with Ozark for the most weeks at the overall number-one position. While One Piece and Suits shone brightly in the streaming landscape, other series made noteworthy appearances.
The Wheel of Time, which began its second season on September 1 on Prime Video, reentered the top 10 with 515 million minutes of viewing. Paramount+’s Special Ops: Lioness made a significant splash in its top 10 debut week, accumulating 363 million minutes. It’s important to note that Nielsen’s streaming ratings focus on viewing via television sets, excluding anything watched on computers or mobile devices.
Netflix Is Counting On One Piece
Additionally, these ratings reflect the preferences of U.S. viewers and do not account for figures from other countries. Following the success of the first season, the creators of Netflix‘s One Piece have their sights set on a long and prosperous future for the show, with up to 12 seasons in mind. Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements of Tomorrow Studios recently expressed their excitement for the ambitious task.
“We have hopes for 12 seasons, there’s so much material,” Adelstein told Deadline. Clements added they’re prepared for six seasons if given the go-ahead. “We’re over 1,080 chapters at this point in the manga. We have plans with Matt Owens for how we would break multiple seasons, and I think even if we did six seasons, we would probably only use up half of the chapters. It really could go on and on.”
Clements also detailed their approach to selecting specific portions of the manga to adapt and expand upon across several seasons. She emphasized that these decisions are made in collaboration with Netflix, publisher Shueisha, and the creator of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda. Clements said there have been several discussions about Season 2, while talks about subsequent installments have been less comprehensive.
One Piece follows young adventurer Monkey D. Luffy and his crew as they search for the mythical treasure known as the One Piece. The series features an ensemble cast including Inaki Godoy as Luffy, alongside Emily Rudd, Mackenyu, Jacob Romero Gibson, and Taz Skylar as the members of the Straw Hat Pirates. The first season consists of eight episodes and covers the events from the “East Blue Saga.”
