Rings of Power's Sad Numbers Prove Netflix Would've Already Killed the Show (Take a Hint, Amazon)
Amazon's Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power series attracted millions of viewers. But did its first season managed to captivate and keep its viewers?
New numbers show: probably not. If the series were to be launched by Netflix, the network would have been done with the show already.
The Lord of the Rings prequel series is one of the most expensive shows to have ever been created. The expensive $460 million project launched last fall on the company's streaming platform.
The series was guaranteed to get massive media and viewers' attention.
However, the great fan enthusiasm that Amazon was hoping for did not quite materialize. New data insights show the disillusionment in raw, merciless numbers.
Alarm bells would already be ringing at Netflix. So, what exactly do the new statistics show?
So far, according to Amazon, the numbers go like this.
No series on the platform has been watched more than The Rings of Power, with more than 100 million views worldwide. A total of 24 billion hours of the series have been streamed.
However, the new figures from the Hollywood Reporter give a deeper insight into the statistics, dealing with the quality of viewership.
As it turns out, the Lord of the Rings prequel show achieved a so-called completion rate of between 37 and 45 percent. That means that on average, not even half of all people who started The Rings of Power stayed with it till the end.
A solid (not even triumphant) result would be a completion rate of 50 percent. And that's precisely why the Lord of the Rings series wouldn't (presumably) have had a chance on Netflix.
In the whole TV shows' world Netflix basically sets the rules, so a reference to its renewal politics is only logical. Netflix most often cancels a show if it doesn't achieve certain key parameters.
One of the most crucial ones being the completion rate. As a rule, if it's 50% and higher then show has a solid chance of being renewed.
Notorious case in point: the German mystery series 1899 was watched by many people but had a drop-out rate of 63 percent. Naturally, Netflix didn't order a second season.
This approach is often criticized because series can still grow months after they start and attract viewers. However, Netflix is all about saving costs in short term, so there we have it.
Using this selection method, one can speculate that Netflix would probably have canceled the Rings of Power after season 1.
Although we of course don't know how Netflix would have handled a project of such magnitude — the rights alone cost Amazon $250 million.
It's obvious that Rings of Power is performing below expectations. The show will have to somehow save itself as it heads into its second season, which is currently filming, but doesn't have a release date yet.