The figures are in, and while The Acolyte brought in almost 3 million less views in the same time frame as Ahsoka, which itself appeared to suffer from a lack of promotional push due to the writers strike last summer, that still represents a solid opening – and the largest Disney Plus debut of the year to date – for a show with no major stars set in an entirely new era.
Ahsoka had the benefit of being set in the post-Return of the Jedi era as part of the Favreau and Filoni led Mandoverse as well as featuring Rosario Dawson returning as Ahsoka for the third time and Hayden Christensen back as Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader. Meanwhile, to the broader viewing public who are largely unaware of The High Republic publishing program The Acolyte represents an entirely fresh era of the saga, with little chance of ‘cameos’ other than the possible appearances of the long-lived Jedi Master Yoda and Huyang.
Though it initially appeared that “The Acolyte” may have had a stronger debut than 2023’s “Ahsoka,” Disney shared that the first episode of its latest Star Wars series reached 11.1 million views in its first five days — almost 3 million short of what “Ahsoka” achieved in the same amount of time. “The Acolyte” still represents Disney+‘s biggest series premiere of 2024, however.
