Shōgun seems to be the show of the moment. Buoyed by rave reviews and positive word of mouth, the two-episode premiere of the FX series generated 9 million views on Hulu, Disney+ and Star+ in its first six days of availability, Disney announced yesterday.
That's enough to become the biggest premiere for an FX series on Hulu in the United States, surpassing The Bear Season 2. It's also the first No. 1 series internationally for a scripted show from Disney General Entertainment, a group that includes FX, ABC, Disney Channel. , Freeform, and more.
An important caveat, however, is that this 9 million figure includes Hulu's audience on Disney+, the company's new package of the two streaming services. In fact, Disney said that Shōgun was created “right” before The Bear season 2 thanks to this additional audience.
This metric of “views” is defined as total streaming time divided by running time, and has been most commonly used in recent times by streaming companies like Netflix, who popularized it.
Shōgun takes off
Shōgun's early numbers are also quite impressive when measured by another metric. According to figures provided to IGN by audience data company Samba TV, 1.8 million U.S. households watched the first episode of Shōgun on Hulu during its first five days of availability. The second episode, meanwhile, was seen by 1.1 million American households on Hulu.
By Samba's metrics, that surpasses the season 2 premiere of Reacher (1.7 million U.S. households in the first five days on Prime Video) and the first episodes of Netflix's live-action Avatar: The Last Master. Air (1.4 million US households in first five days) and One Piece (986,000 US households in first five days).
If all of these different metrics are a little confusing, just know that they all point to a strong start for Shōgun. The historical drama series, based on James Clavell's 1975 novel of the same name, is now broadcast on Tuesdays on FX and Hulu after its two-episode premiere.
IGN gave the 10 episodes of Shōgun are 10/10with Samantha Nelson writing that it “places characters over combat for a story of complex and beautiful intrigue set in feudal Japan”.
Alex Stedman is a senior news editor at IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.