The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premiere breaks Disney+ viewership record

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's first episode has become the most-watched series premiere on Disney+, it was announced on Tuesday. The episode premiered on Friday, and joined the series opener of WandaVision and the season two premiere of The Mandalorian in the top three most-watched Disney+ titles on opening weekend.

Disney didn't provide actual viewership figures, however. In India, the show airs on Disney+Hotstar Premium, and the figures contributed to the overall tally.

Deadline cited SambaTV as reporting that 1.7 million households tuned in to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on opening weekend, higher than the 1.6 million households that watched WandaVision.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier stars Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan as the titular heroes, and traces their journeys after the events of Avengers: Endgame. It is the second Disney+ streaming series produced by Marvel Studios, and will be followed by Loki on June 11, and Ms Marvel and Hawkeye later this year.

The show has been received positively by fans. The Hindustan Times review read, "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier appears to be a return to a more familiar style of storytelling... Tonally, it's more in line with the conspiracy thriller vibe of Captain America: The Winter Soldier; it dusts off some of the same themes — nationalism, political oversight, and the burden of legacy."

Unlike Disney and most streaming platforms, Netflix has started being more transparent about viewership figures in recent months, although it changed its metrics around what constitutes a 'view', which resulted in bloated figures as compared to the previous metrics.