If the Lucasfilm prequel series Obi-Wan Kenobi has proved one thing, it’s that when it comes to Star Wars, too much is never enough. The series starring Ewan McGregor as “that crazy old hermit” Obi-Wan Kenobi living in the Tattooine desert, watching over a child Luke Skywalker and saving a child Princess Leia from kidnappers has apparently scored Disney Plus’ highest numbers for streaming on an opening weekend on the service.
The Star Wars account on Twitter sent a “thank you to the best fans in the galaxy” for helping the new series break Disney Plus records.
Disney Plus has been growing at an exponential rate, with almost eight million new subscribers to the service in the first three months of 2022, according to a report in The Verge. In addition, the service received an almost 35 million subscriber bump worldwide in 2021, according to the company’s 2022 earnings report.
These numbers can at least partly be attributed to the original streaming series and films in the popular franchises owned by Disney. In addition to the company’s own animated and live-action family-friendly films, Disney gatekeeps Jim Henson’s Muppets, Star Wars, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Disney doesn’t normally release specific viewing numbers, but The Hollywood Reporter received the service’s streaming numbers from Nielsen, and the Star Wars series The Mandalorian was by-and-far the most popular show on the service, with over eight billion streams for season 2 alone. With Obi-Wan Kenobi looking to beat that number, the amount of streams for the show may possibly reach beyond 10 billion.
