“The Wheel of Time” outpaced “The Witcher” in pre-release demand

Amazon Prime Video’s highly anticipated fantasy adaptation “The Wheel of Time” is tracking ahead of other recent fantasy series and Prime Video Original hits in global pre-release demand, according to Parrot Analytics’ latest data. In fact, global pre-release demand for the show was 13.5% higher than global pre-release demand for “The Witcher” as of four days ahead of their respective series premiere.

According to Parrot Analytics, attaining exceptional audience demand for “The Wheel of Time” could be a turning point for Amazon Prime Video. “The service has lagged against its streaming competitors in demand growth over the last year, and even fell behind Disney+ in digital original demand share in the United States for the first time ever in Q3 2021,”  the company said.

Prime Video has not had an original series hit number one worldwide since October of 2020, when both “The Boys” and “Mirzapur” topped the global demand charts following the release of their second seasons. Meanwhile, all three of the Disney+ live-action Marvel shows became number one worldwide earlier this year, while Netflix had three separate international originals hit number one worldwide in September 2021 alone: “La Casa de Papel,” “Sex Education” and “Squid Game”.

“'The Wheel of Time' has all the components needed for a show to achieve high audience demand and become a global hit: hugely popular underlying IP with a built-in fan base, a distribution platform with over 200 million accounts, and a high-profile cast featuring the likes of Rosamund Pike and Alvaro Monte. While pre-release demand is not a guarantee of post-launch success, it serves as a good proxy for how much of an automatic fanbase a show will get, and the latest data suggests ‘The Wheel of Time’ is poised for a strong global debut,”  Parrot Analytics noted.

●   “THE WHEEL OF TIME” vs TOP GLOBAL AMAZON ORIGINALS

Four days ahead of their respective series premiere dates, global audience demand for “The Wheel of Time” was: 2.02x higher than demand for “The Boys”; 8.92x higher than demand for “Mirzapur”; 12.7x higher than demand for “Invincible”; and 19.2x higher than demand for “The Family Man”.

●   “THE WHEEL OF TIME” vs RECENT FANTASY DEBUTS

Four days ahead of their respective series premiere dates, global audience demand for “The Wheel of Time” was: 1.13x higher than demand for Netflix’s “The Witcher”; 2.16x higher than demand for Netflix’s “Shadow and Bone”; 5.56x higher than demand for Apple TV+’s “See”; and 7.76x higher than demand for HBO’s “His Dark Materials”.