It would appear thatLokimanaged to finish its run on Disney+ as it started, by setting a new record for the largest audience over the first five days for “Episode 6: For All Time, Always”. According to figures reported by Samba TV, the God of Mischief ended his triumphant run with a massive 2.5 million views between Wednesday July 14 and Saturday July 18, which included a US viewship of 1.9 million. As was expected, the series added to its record-breaking opening episode by blowing away all that came before it with its finale.
To put it in perspective with its fellowMarvel TV shows, the finale ofWandaVision pulling in 1.4 million US viewers, whileFalcon and The Winter Soldiermanaged 1.7 million, both over the same five day initial period of their respective runs. The story was similar across the globe as well. The UK sawLokipull in 300,000, againstWandaVision’s 209,000 andFalcon’s 254,000; Germany had 96,000 against 42,000 and 78,000 forWandaVisionandFalconrespectively; Australia logged 12,000 against a respective 7,000 and 10,000, all measured over the five days.
Lokiarrived as something of a wildcard after the more predictable storyline ofFalcon and The Winter Soldier, with no one really sure of how it would all pan out. While there were many rumors, the eventual breaking of the Marvel timeline, the introduction of one of the many variants of Jonathan Majors' Kang, and the effective setting up of the future of theMarvel Cinematic Universeall came together to deliverMarvel’s biggest hit yet.
While the previous Marvel series' have not been renewed, althoughFalcon and The Winter Soldierhas set upCaptain America 4with Anthony Mackie taking over Chris Evan’s Captain America shield,Lokialso defied the odds to gain itself a second season. With Loki himself being one of the most popular characters in theMCU, even his death inAvengers: Endgameseemingly can’t keep the God of Mischief down, and while Kevin Feige has said previously that Loki’s demise at the hands of Thanos, what he didn’t tell us at the time was that there would be another version of Loki who would end up escaping his own timeline and heading in other areas of the Marvel timeline.
WithLokinow done and the numbers proving that the Marvel bandwagon is continuing to grow as it roles on from one series to the next, all eyes will not be turning to the animatedWhat If…?, HawkeyeandMs Marvelseries' to see if they can continue to build on that success. We have already seenBlack Widowset up theHawkeyeseries, andMs Marvelwill introduce one of the key components ofThe Marvels, meaning that as Phase Four movies along, the connections between the big and small screen offerings from theMCUwill likely see audiences continue to grow, particularly with the “known character” series such asHawkeyeand evenShe-Hulkwith its inclusion of Mark Ruffalo’s Professor Hulk. How high can Disney and Marvel take their viewer numbers by this time next year? The sky isn’t the limit, it’s only just the beginning.
