Data: Fallout is Prime Video’s biggest premiere
April 23, 2024
Fallout, Prime Video’s latest big-budget series, premiered on April 11th. Available globally, this creation by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy is inspired by the celebrated Fallout video game series.
Fallout draws heavily from Cold War and 80s classics such as Mad Max, The Postman and A Boy and His Dog and is credited by many as renewing consumer interest in RPGs.
Adapting games to TV can be a double-edged sword. While having a pre-existing fanbase can guarantee audience, it goes some way to define that audience, as well as restricting show material, setting and tone. Indeed, scriptwriters not respecting the ‘law’ of a series is often cited as the main concern by avid fans.
Fallout (3 and 4 games), as an RPG featuring a protagonist with no set name, build or gender affords far more creativity that most series, with Noland and Joy able to forge their own path in the post-apocalyptic universe, flavoured by the rich setting, but less restricted by many gaming series with defined characters and story arcs.
Fallout now joins a growing family of quality and successful live-action adaptations including The Last of Us, Twisted Metal, Halo and The Witcher (originally a novel adaptation).
Fallout – Massive Domestic hit
Fallout, unlike some of Prime Video’s other key shows dropped as an entire season, breaking from Prime Video’s episodic release schedule observed in its other key shows including The Boys, The Wheel of Time, Reacher and The Rings of Power.
As such in terms of individual views (over 2 min) and time spent, Fallout’s opening week has been nothing short of spectacular, according to PlumResearch. In its domestic market (US) – Fallout took 53 million views and 47 million hours over its first week (Thursday to Sunday). Compared to next best performing show, The Boys, which took 28 million views and 29 million hours during the week of its season finale in July 2022.
Fallout also tipped the scales in terms of unique viewers, with 9.7 million US Prime profiles tuning in to watch the show, again comparing favourably to other Prime tentpoles, which saw The Boys take 9.1 million unique views at its weekly peak, The Rings of Power 7.8 million and Reacher 6.3 million.
Fallout has proved bingeworthy, with a total of 56 million episodes being viewed, for an average of 5.8 episodes per (unique) viewer or 72 per cent of the 8-episode series.
Fallout’s Global Appeal
Outside of the US, Fallout again took a huge share of viewing over its first few days on the platform, notes PlumResearch.
The show took the top spot in the vast majority of Prime markets, with the key exception being India, where sci-fi rom-com movie Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya proved a streaming success and Fallout took a more humble 10 per cent of viewing.
In the majority of other markets, Fallout took around 30 per cent of the week’s (Monday to Sunday) viewing share, especially impressive as Fallout’s Thursday launch, limited measured viewing in its first week to just four days.
Fallout Set to Take Global Top Spot for the Year
Fallout is clearly set to be Prime Video’s hit series of 2024, but to put this in context of how big a success the show will be, the series is already the year’s fourth most watched series in Prime Video’s top 17 markets, and the second most watched show in the US; achieving this rank in just four days, against almost four months for other titles.
Reacher, which dropped episodes from December to January, just tips the scales at 142 million views across Prime Video’s biggest 17 markets. Fallout, in just four days of viewing has surpassed 100 million views and 91 million hours watched, indicating an extremely high level of interest and completion across a global audience.
Fallout is undeniably a huge success at launch but as viewing data continues to trickle in over the next week, it will become clear if Fallout’s weekend triumph translates into a longer-term megahit, or a (spectacular) flash in the pan.
Jonathan Broughton – Research Director, PlumResearch, commented: “Fallout has clearly been a resounding success for Prime, receiving widespread acclaim and almost instant renewal for [season 2]. While the viewing across the first few days of the series has been unprecedented, reaching as high as 45 per cent in some markets, it does remain to be seen how this plays out longer term. While it clearly took more viewing over its first few days, compared to a per-episode drop such as Reacher. Reacher managed to a 20 per cent share over viewing for just over a month, and maintaining audience is more important for churn reduction than peak viewing”