The Mandalorian (and Baby Yoda) own everything and the numbers prove it
Can anything stop the dynamic duo of the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda? In just mere weeks, they have edged out all other streaming content and all Democratic presidential candidates in passion and engagement online.
At this moment in time, nothing is topping the cultural engagement of Star Wars: The Mandalorian and its little green surprise phenom known popularly, if very unofficially, as Baby Yoda.
The strong data comes from Parrot Analytics, which uses a sophisticated, weighted series of metrics to determine what content is most in-demand (a like on a page counts less than an actual posting by someone, which, in turn, counts less than actually downloading the content).
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In its debut week, the new series came in at third among original digital streaming content, with nearly 40 million demand expressions in the U.S., far shy of DC’s Titans with over 57 million expressions and Stranger Things, in first with over 101 million.
But in just in its second week, The Mandalorian had jumped to the number-one spot for original digital streaming content, with well over 100 million demand expressions (five-month reigning champion Stranger Things had dropped to over 81 million), a figure which also made it the most in-demand of all streaming content, narrowly edging out Saturday Night Live, which had over 98 million demand expressions.
Its third week was even better: it was first place across both original and overall streaming content again, with a significantly increased demand expression measure of over 132 million. In original series, Titans, with well over 85 million, came in second, and The Mandalorian very narrowly missed equaling the total of Titans and the fourth-place The Crown (over 47 million expressions, behind Stranger Things’s over 76 million). And in terms of overall content, The Mandalorian was still way ahead of second-place Spongebob Squarepants (over 107 million) and third-place Rick and Morty (nearly 101 million).
Let’s be clear: these are some longstanding, powerful names in entertainment in recent years and some, like the Titans of DC, have been around much longer.
This rise has been rapid, to say the least. And that doesn’t even get to Baby Yoda conquering the internet and possibly the world. I noted earlier for Dork Side of the Force that our little green friend worked extremely well in carrying on a tradition of cute characters paired with gritty characters, and the brilliant execution of this and how it is part of actual storytelling (a strength of the series I noted in another article), not mere fanservice or gratuitousness, explains much why the youngling has immediately become a pop-culture sensation and why the show is so popular.
But now?
Baby Yoda is also a political threat: from his debut on November 12th through November 25th, according to measures from NewsWhip, he nearly doubles the social-interactions-per-story of either of the top-two Democratic presidential candidates: Bernie Sanders, with Joe Biden just behind, and everyone else way behind, so much so that the little alien outperforms numbers three (Pete Buttigieg), four (Tulsi Gabbard), and five (Kamala Harris) combined. This makes Baby Yoda’s supporters by far the most energetic and passionate on the web. In absolute raw terms, for a being whose existence we were unaware of a few weeks ago, with 2.29 million interactions for that same period, he was only behind Biden (8 million), Sanders (2.9 million), and Elizabeth Warren (2.53 million).
Baby Yoda’s 2020 campaign spokesperson, for comment, reached he could be not.
Next. The Mandalorian nails the gritty/cute combo with Baby Yoda. dark
Rival TV networks, superheroes, stars, and politicians seem unable to stop the rise of culture’s favorite new duo; clearly, the Force is strong with the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda at this moment in a way others can only look upon with envy.