Apple TV+ Viewership Is Surging. Is It the ‘Severance’ Halo Effect?
After the long, long wait for “Severance” season 2, Apple TV+ should have a vested interest in making sure the following season arrives as quickly as possible.
The sci-fi series’ much-delayed sophomore season has given the tech giant some of its best streaming viewership since “Ted Lasso” walked off the field almost two years ago, with episodes thus far averaging about 3.6 million estimated U.S. views per week, according to Luminate data.
This is based on analysis of the episodes’ viewing time in their first seven days of availability, with an installment’s total minutes streamed divided by its runtime.
Going by the same metric, “Severance” has outperformed almost all of Apple’s marquee releases from the past two years, with the final season of “Lasso” being the lone exception. Even “The Morning Show” S3 was slightly behind “Severance,” averaging 3.1 million weekly views per episode.
Nor was the viewership surge contained to the new season. “Severance” S1 was streamed more in the first six weeks of this year than in its first 12 weeks of release back in 2022 (22.4 million hours streamed vs. 18.4 million, respectively) and ranked above season 2 on Luminate’s top streaming original series chart the week of S2’s premiere.
In other words, “Severance” S2 is not merely performing well in its own right but prompting new viewers to catch up with the show (and/or prompting fans to refresh their memories, given the three-year gap between seasons) — the best-case scenario for any TV show rolling out new entries.
But it’s also the crowning achievement thus far of what has quietly been a surprisingly strong period for Apple TV+.
“Severance” has not been the only show on the SVOD to chart among the most-watched streaming originals in recent months; indeed, the week of the season premiere, season 2 of another sci-fi drama, “Silo,” charted alongside it on both Luminate’s and Nielsen’s rankings.
“Silo,” in fact, had a sustained run on the charts as its second season progressed, with the season debuting at No. 34 on Luminate’s top 50 chart and climbing to No. 16 by the time its finale dropped. The series as a whole also ranked among the top 10 most-watched streaming original shows for three consecutive weeks at the start of the year, according to Nielsen (which, unlike Luminate, does not rank titles by season).
Meanwhile, other Apple titles, such as “Shrinking,” Irish import “Bad Sisters” and the limited series “Disclaimer,” made Luminate’s weekly top 50 series chart throughout the fall and winter, even as their viewership numbers lagged far behind breakouts including “Landman” and the latest hits from Netflix — though in this regard, Apple TV+ is no different than all other SVODs on the market.
In fact, during one of these weeks, Apple had more original seasons in the top 50 than any other streamer save for Netflix and Paramount+ — and all of the Paramount shows were Taylor Sheridan-created titles.
Perhaps Apple’s quality-over-quantity content strategy is paying off at last? It remains difficult to paint a full picture of TV+’s engagement compared with other streamers, but its lack of licensed titles is undoubtedly still holding it back in an era where library content is dominating streaming viewing time.
Still, it can’t be denied that the SVOD is producing shows viewers want to watch, and “Severance” is only the latest and best example. For a platform that has struggled to define its identity beyond “the place to stream ‘Ted Lasso’ ” (and will have money behind it as long as Tim Cook wants there to be), it’s far from a worst-case scenario.
The sci-fi series’ much-delayed sophomore season has given the tech giant some of its best streaming viewership since “Ted Lasso” walked off the field almost two years ago, with episodes thus far averaging about 3.6 million estimated U.S. views per week, according to Luminate data.
This is based on analysis of the episodes’ viewing time in their first seven days of availability, with an installment’s total minutes streamed divided by its runtime.
Going by the same metric, “Severance” has outperformed almost all of Apple’s marquee releases from the past two years, with the final season of “Lasso” being the lone exception. Even “The Morning Show” S3 was slightly behind “Severance,” averaging 3.1 million weekly views per episode.
Nor was the viewership surge contained to the new season. “Severance” S1 was streamed more in the first six weeks of this year than in its first 12 weeks of release back in 2022 (22.4 million hours streamed vs. 18.4 million, respectively) and ranked above season 2 on Luminate’s top streaming original series chart the week of S2’s premiere.
In other words, “Severance” S2 is not merely performing well in its own right but prompting new viewers to catch up with the show (and/or prompting fans to refresh their memories, given the three-year gap between seasons) — the best-case scenario for any TV show rolling out new entries.
But it’s also the crowning achievement thus far of what has quietly been a surprisingly strong period for Apple TV+.
“Severance” has not been the only show on the SVOD to chart among the most-watched streaming originals in recent months; indeed, the week of the season premiere, season 2 of another sci-fi drama, “Silo,” charted alongside it on both Luminate’s and Nielsen’s rankings.
“Silo,” in fact, had a sustained run on the charts as its second season progressed, with the season debuting at No. 34 on Luminate’s top 50 chart and climbing to No. 16 by the time its finale dropped. The series as a whole also ranked among the top 10 most-watched streaming original shows for three consecutive weeks at the start of the year, according to Nielsen (which, unlike Luminate, does not rank titles by season).
Meanwhile, other Apple titles, such as “Shrinking,” Irish import “Bad Sisters” and the limited series “Disclaimer,” made Luminate’s weekly top 50 series chart throughout the fall and winter, even as their viewership numbers lagged far behind breakouts including “Landman” and the latest hits from Netflix — though in this regard, Apple TV+ is no different than all other SVODs on the market.
In fact, during one of these weeks, Apple had more original seasons in the top 50 than any other streamer save for Netflix and Paramount+ — and all of the Paramount shows were Taylor Sheridan-created titles.
Perhaps Apple’s quality-over-quantity content strategy is paying off at last? It remains difficult to paint a full picture of TV+’s engagement compared with other streamers, but its lack of licensed titles is undoubtedly still holding it back in an era where library content is dominating streaming viewing time.
Still, it can’t be denied that the SVOD is producing shows viewers want to watch, and “Severance” is only the latest and best example. For a platform that has struggled to define its identity beyond “the place to stream ‘Ted Lasso’ ” (and will have money behind it as long as Tim Cook wants there to be), it’s far from a worst-case scenario.