The numbers are in, and a combination of switching out its leading man, a lengthy delay between seasons, and the sheer volume of TV out there right now has resulted in a steep decline in viewership for Netflix’s “The Witcher”.
The fourth season recorded the lowest first-week viewership in the franchise’s history, landing 7.4 million views in its opening week according to Netflix – a 52% drop from the third season’s 15.2 million views and the second’s 18.5 million views.
This matches with third-party analytics firm Samba TV, which says the first episode was watched by 35% fewer viewers than the third. That’s a much steeper drop than the 15% one Samba recorded between the second and third season premieres.
That same analytics firm indicated that the third season saw a big drop in viewership during the third season’s release, with less than half of the viewership tuning in beyond the fourth episode.
The drop in viewership numbers comes amid a significant shift for the series with Liam Hemsworth stepping into the lead role of Geralt of Rivia – taking over from Henry Cavill, who exited after the end of the third season.
Netflix has already completed filming for the fifth and final season, which will almost certainly mark the end of the franchise at Netflix.
