While it’s no surprise that Marvel shows are watched every week by die-hard Marvel Cinematic Universe fans, this week’s premiere of Loki broke Disney+’s record for any of Marvel’s shows to date. According to Deadline, “Glorious Purpose”, the first episode of Loki, drew 890,000 households following its Wednesday premiere.
This statistic makes Loki “the largest US premiere-day audience for any of Marvel’s Disney+ shows”, surpassing both The Falcon and the Winter Solider and WandaVision‘s premiere viewership numbers of 795,000 and 655,000 households respectively (Deadline). Via Deadline, these numbers have been reported by SambaTV, and represent an increasing trend in the popularity of Marvel’s television ventures.
With Disney’s shift from Friday episode premieres to Loki episodes being released on Wednesdays, the increase in viewership shows that audiences have stuck with the shows regardless of when in the week episodes drop. SambaTV reports the viewership numbers for several streaming platforms due to their access to three-million smart TV households, according to Deadline. To be reported as a view, SambaTV records any smart TV that watches a show for a minimum of five minutes.
Loki follows the god of mischief as he encounters the Time Variance Authority after he escapes from the 2012 timeline with the tesseract. The series serves as Loki’s first solo project with Tom Hiddleston (Avengers: Infinity War) returning to play Thor’s adopted brother. At the Time Variance Authority, Loki meets Agent Mobius (played by Owen Wilson, Night at the Museum), who takes an interest in Loki’s potential to help solve an inter-timeline spree of crimes against the sacred timeline.
New episodes of Loki premiere every Wednesday with the series streaming exclusively on Disney+.