Loki Season 2 premiere flops compared to Season 1

Chris Tilly
The TVA Team ready for action.

The numbers are in for Loki’s Season 2 debut on Disney+, and they don’t come close to matching the viewers who tuned in for the Season 1 premiere.

Loki launched on Disney+ in June 2021 and saw Tom Hiddleston’s ‘God of Mischief’ embarking on time-traveling adventures that brought him into contact with He Who Remains. A variant of the proposed overarching villain for Marvel’s foreseeable future, Kang the Conquerer.

The series was a critical and commercial success, meaning Season 2 was quickly green-lit, through with a different creative team behind the scenes.

So Eric Martin took over from Michael Waldron as head writer, and cameras rolled in the UK in 2022, for the second season’s 2023 release.

Loki Season 2 premiere flops compared to Season 1

Season 2 of Episode 1 of Loki premiered on Disney+ on October 5, 2023. According to the Nielsen rankings, the show collected 446 million minutes of viewing over its first three days.

In contrast, Season 1 Episode 1 of Loki managed 731 million minutes of viewing over the same period in June 2021. Which is around 40% more.

The Hollywood Reporter does qualify these numbers though, stating that “The 446 million minutes recorded by Nielsen includes viewing of season one’s six episodes as well, so it’s hard to say exactly how much time U.S. viewers spent watching just the season two opener — though it’s likely responsible for the majority of viewing time for the week.”

The outlet also adds that “Disney said that the season two premiere, which runs 47 minutes, had 10.9 million “views” worldwide, which would equate to about 512 million minutes of watch time.”

For context, Nielsen’s streaming ratings cover views on TV sets only, meaning they don’t include minutes watched on phones or computers, while the system only measures U.S. audiences.

Loki Season 2 Episodes 1-5 are now streaming on Disney+. You can check out our other coverage below:

About The Author

Chris Tilly is the TV and Movies Editor at Dexerto. He has a BA in English Literature, an MA in Newspaper Journalism, and over the last 20 years, he's worked for the likes of Time Out, IGN, and Fandom. Chris loves Star Wars, Marvel, DC, sci-fi, and especially horror, while he knows maybe too much about Alan Partridge. You can email him here: chris.tilly@dexerto.com.