Percy Jackson and the Olympians breaks streaming record for Disney
After only a week, Disney's adaption of Rick Riordan's fantasy novels has become the No. 1 Disney Branded Television premiere of all time.
After months of waiting and years in the works, Disney+ has finally dropped their much-anticipated series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which is based on the book series of the same name by Rick Riordan.
And now, despite only arriving on the streaming service a week ago (Wednesday 20th December), the series has emerged as the No. 1 Disney Branded Television premiere of all time.
The series' first episode, titled I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher, achieved 13.3 million views globally across both Disney+ and Hulu in its first six days, according to TV Line, far surpassing the records of Ahsoka season 1, Loki season 2 and fourth season of The Kardashians, all of which also landed on the platform earlier this year.
In comparison, the premiere of Disney's adaption of Goosebumps, another children's book, only achieved a viewership of 4.2 million in its first 3 days.
Based on the best-selling children's book of the same name, Percy Jackson and the Olympians follows Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell), a young demigod, who embarks on a series of fantastical adventures alongside his friends Annabeth (Leah Jeffries) and Grover (Aryan Simhadri).
A synopsis for the series reads: "Geared towards a general audience and especially tweens, teens, and young adults, the live-action series tells the fantastical story of a 12-year-old modern demigod, Percy Jackson, who's just coming to terms with his newfound supernatural powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt.
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"Now Percy must trek across America to find it and restore order to Olympus."
Percy Jackson and The Olympians is the second adaption of Riordan's novels, with the first a film series starring Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson, which, despite its cult status, was criticised for the age of its actors.
On the subject, producer Rebecca Riordan recently told RadioTimes.com: "We wanted to not have it aged up, and so that was very important.
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"I think, really, we would not have done this if we had been told we had to hire 18-year-old actors to play these parts.
"Because it's not that story. You know, it's a story of a young boy, you know, finding who he is, discovering who he is and how he can work with his friends to achieve a goal."
Percy Jackson and the Olympians is available to stream on Disney Plus. Check out the rest of our Sci-Fi and Fantasy coverage, or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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Authors
Chezelle Bingham is a Sub-Editor for Radio Times. She previously worked on Disney magazines as a Writer, for 6 pre-school and primary titles. Alongside her prior work in writing, she possesses a BA in English Literature and Language.
