"Vikings" Season 5 Update:
When the fifth installment of “Vikings” kicked off at the end of November 2017, the opening episode “The Departed” dragged in struggling TV show viewership. The premiere episode number of Season 5 showed an 18% decline compared with last year’s season opener, as measured two days following the official airing. One reason for the underperformance may be that “Vikings” fans are so bummed out over Ragnar’s death that they aren’t sure they want to keep watching the TV show. But rather than continuing to speculate wildly, how about we look at what TV show viewership number in P2P networks can tell us? The latest episode of “Vikings” Season 5, “Moments of Vision”, just aired on January 24, 2018, which enables us to take another look at the numbers.
TV SHOW VIEWERSHIP OF NORSE DRAMA SERIES SIGNALS RECOVERY AFTER DIP
Altogether, we’ve discovered some reason to believe that viewers may surge back to “Vikings” and prompt a recovery in the show’s worldwide performance. You’ll find evidence for that in the following facts we’ve compiled:
During the official Season 5 release window on the History Channel, both the TV show viewership number for single episodes and the overall number of episodes shared seem to increase slightly, but steadily. Compared with the first batch of Season 4, the fifth season conquered its viewership ratings by more than 10%. The sum of daily file sharers rose to more than 30 million, which did not manage to beat Season 4’s second-half numbers (34.73 million), but did squeak out a victory over its first half (29.65).
Altogether, the sum of daily file sharers for all of 2017 was 95.17 million – an increase of 25% over the previous year. This indicates a growing horde of fans from a year-to-year point of view.
Although it seems that Ragnar’s death put a damper on huge markets like Russia, Brazil or the U.S., where the demand for “Vikings” episodes slightly retreated, other countries like Spain and Italy draw opposing trend lines! The sum of daily file sharer number for both of these countries, for example, increased by nearly 84% and 32% from 2016 to 2017! Within these markets, file sharers are driving the surge in TV show viewership upward. And European markets aren’t the only ones showing interesting developments. South Asia has also made some strong moves. India, for example, backed by the world’s second-largest population, boasts a respectable number of viewers who have downloaded and shared episodes over P2P networks. And their figures rose by more than 53% from 2016 to 2017!
There may be a certain amount of uncertainty brewing within the plot of “Vikings”, but its popularity within its worldwide target markets seems solid. And the Norsemen are still recruiting: Some file sharers have just started catching up “Vikings” from the beginning, indicated by the daily average file sharer number of 31,200 during the Season 5/1 release window.
But how will the story evolve once the second part of Season 5 storms the airwaves in 2018? And will the TV show be able to draw its fans back into battle?
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'VIKINGS' TV SHOW VIEWERSHIP FOR SEASON 5 OPENER UNDERPERFORMS THE SEASON 4 ONE BY 18%
December 1, 2017
At last, the long-awaited fifth season of the historical drama “Vikings” officially set sail on November 29, 2017! Only two days after the first episode raided your homes, we’d like to tap into the piracy statistics of “Vikings” episodes once again and see how its TV show viewership has changed compared with the previous seasons’ premieres.
On the day after its official release, 67 new torrent files containing the season premiere of “Vikings” floated, fully-armed, into P2P networks. As a result, nearly 354,000 file sharers from around the world have downloaded and shared the opening episode. Comparing this with the Season 4 opener, “A Good Treason,” TV show viewership witnessed a declining number of 18.64%.
The following numbers show the daily file sharers for each season premiere one day after their official release date:
Season 1: “Rites of Passage”; 173,525 Season 2: “Brother’s War”; 234,822 Season 3: “Mercenary”; 425,787 Season 4: “A Good Treason”; 434,751 Season 5: “The Departed Part 1”; 353,691
THE NUMBER OF DAILY FILE SHARERS FOR ‘VIKINGS’ EPISODES ADDED UP TO MORE THAN 271 MILLION
According to the TV show piracy peaks as well as the annual sum of daily file sharers, “Vikings” managed to enlist even more fans into its horde, which is still continuing to expand! So far in 2017, the sum of daily P2P users reached almost 80 million, which is already an increase of 5.7% compared with the number of file sharers in 2016.
Below we have the sum of daily P2P user number since the very first episode of “Vikings” was released in March 2013, up until November 30, 2017:
271,530,560
SINCE SEASON 5 OPENER, EPISODES OF ‘VIKINGS’ HAVE CONQUERED BRAZIL!
The “Vikings” fans from Brazil, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain made the god of thunder proud, as they each watched episodes of “Vikings” since the Season 5 premiere more than those from any other countries!
But the question remains: Will the success of “Vikings” continue further on into its fifth installment? No matter what Season 5 brings to the screen, and of course, to P2P networks, we’ll be sure to keep you updated on the latest developments and figures for “Vikings” TV show viewership.
'VIKINGS' PULLED IN A SUM OF DAILY P2P USERS TOTALING 270 MILLION!
September 21, 2017
The first season of “Vikings” premiered in Canada and the United States on March 3, 2013. After releasing the fifth episode of Season 1, the History Channel announced it would renew the series for a second season. This success story continued with the addition of Seasons 3 and 4 in the following years. Eventually, History announced that they had also ordered the fifth and sixth seasons of “Vikings”.*
The fifth season, which will be released on November 29, 2017, is brewing up a storm of tension among the “Vikings” fan base. Now that Season 5 is in sight, let’s look at the file sharing statistics to get more insights into the popularity of “Vikings” and its TV show viewership in different target markets, as well as to find out how it has developed over the last four years.
Since the release of the first episode of “Vikings” in 2013, the historical drama has managed to attract more than 78 million P2P users up through November 20 – just a few days before the premiere of Season 5. Considering that P2P users shared episodes on more than one day during this period, the number adds up to more than 270 million.
The dramatic episodes revolving around Ragnar Lothbrok’s legendary path to becoming a Viking hero and ruler have reaped consistently increasing interest since the show’s beginning. This is evident when looking at both the piracy peaks right after episode releases (see infographic) as well as the annual sum of daily P2P users:
• 2013 (March to December): 25.3 million • 2014: 32.3 million • 2015: 58.8 million • 2016: 75.7 million • 2017 (to date): 77.9 million
To get more detailed insights into the respective seasons, we’ll take a closer look at the file sharing statistics and TV show viewership numbers for this historical series.
TV SHOW VIEWERSHIP OF ‘VIKINGS’ IN P2P NETWORKS INCREASED BY 180% DURING SEASON 1
Only one day after the release of the pilot episode, “Rites of Passage”, 19 torrent files of the show flooded into P2P networks. Reacting to the massive anticipation for the new series, 173,500 P2P users downloaded and shared the pilot worldwide. From that day on, just as the number of Ragnar’s followers grew steadily from one episode to the next, so too did the TV show viewership of “Vikings”. P2P users from all over the world started downloading and sharing the rest of the show’s episodes, soaking in the epic story of the heroic Viking and his family.
During Season 1’s release window, the number of file sharers increased by nearly 85%. On April 29, almost 320,000 P2P users downloaded the final episode of the season, “All Change”, which officially aired on History just one day before. If we take into account the new fans starting to catch up with older episodes even as new ones are being released, the TV show viewership of “Vikings” skyrocketed by 180% in comparison with its premiere. In total, “Vikings” attracted more than 5 million P2P users within the Season 1 release window. Accounting for the fact that file sharers may be downloading on more than just one day, this number adds up to more than 11.59 million in the same period.
Following the swift ascent in TV show viewership for Season 1, history seemed to repeat itself in Seasons 2 through 4. As the trend line above shows, “Vikings” is gradually gaining ground within different markets.
The following release windows attracted a steadily increasing fan base among P2P users worldwide (in order to capture all TV show pirates within the release windows, and to consider shifted airings worldwide, time periods have been expanded by two days):
Season 2 with 10 Episodes, February 27, 2014 – May 3, 2014: 17.36 million Season 3 with 10 Episodes, February 19, 2015 – April 25, 2015: 25.58 million Season 4/1 with 10 Episodes, February 18, 2016 – April 23, 2016: 27.13 million Season 4/2 with 10 Episodes, November 30, 2016 – February 3, 2017: 34.73 million
‘VIKINGS’ HOLDS ITS GROUND AMONG TOP 25 WORLD’S MOST POPULAR TV SHOWS
When comparing the top 25 most popular TV shows by six-month increments, the TV show viewership of “Vikings” consistently drove the series into the top 25 since the first season was released. Even while competing with other successful TV shows like AMC’s “The Walking Dead”, “Vikings” managed to grab the No. 5 spot out of the most popular TV shows in the first half of 2017.
After adding four more months of 2017 data, 39,107,023 file sharers showed a taste for the zombie series up through October 31, 2017, compared with 25,259,730 fans of “Vikings” in the same time period. What makes this even more impressive is the fact that “Vikings” only has half the number of episodes as “The Walking Dead” does, further underlining the popularity of the historical drama. When the next season of “Vikings” drops, we expect TV show viewership numbers to increase, which might also impact its ranking among the world’s most popular TV shows! We’ll keep you updated on the latest developments.
TV SHOW VIEWERSHIP OF “VIKINGS” IS MORE THAN 33 MILLION BY THE SUM OF DAILY FILE SHARERS IN RUSSIA As discussed above, the “Vikings” fan base has been steadily growing all around the world, downloading more and more episodes about the Northmen and their eagerness to conquer new places. As it turns out, the largest numbers of fans come from Russia and Brazil, producing a sum of daily file sharers of 33.3 and 24 million respectively since the pilot episode was released.
While P2P users in Brazil seemed to eagerly await every new episode from the very beginning, Russian file sharers showed a different kind of interest. During the release window of the first part of Season 4, P2P users in Russia seemed to lose interest in “Vikings” as the trend line sank quite dramatically. But this dip didn’t last long, and file sharing activity rose again with the release of the second part of Season 4. The next three countries downloading the most episodes of “Vikings” are Spain, France and the United States.
Out of the top 5 countries, one country in particular showed a sudden surge in interest from P2P users, sending their trend line skyward: Spain! Spanish file sharers hardly seemed to notice “Vikings” at all within the release windows of Seasons 1 and 2, only ranking 13th for worldwide TV show viewership. However, with the official release of Season 3, their number of file sharers increased significantly (see infographic). Due to this popularity increase, Spain grabbed spot No. 3.
TOP 10 COUNTRIES WITH THE HIGHEST TV SHOW VIEWERSHIP BY THE SUM OF DAILY P2P USERS: (Figures in millions)
#1 – Russia 33.3 #2 – Brazil 24.0 #3 – Spain 18.6 #4 – France 13.2 #5 – United States 11.1 #6 – Australia 9.9 #7 – United Kingdom 8.6 #8 – Canada 8.1
#9 – Poland 6.7
#10 – Ukraine 6.6
ATHENS, RIYADH AND MOSCOW DISCOVERED TO HAVE HIGHEST RATE OF TV SHOW VIEWERSHIP OF ‘VIKINGS’
Although Greece only claimed the 11th spot in the country rankings (right behind the Ukraine), its capital city of Athens has the highest number of “Vikings” fans in the worldwide city rankings. Moscow, Russia, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, follow Athens in spots 2 and 3.
The top10 ranking was completed by:
#4 – Madrid (Spain) #5 – São Paulo (Brazil) #6 – Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) #7 – Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) #8 – Barcelona (Spain) #9 – Belgrade (Serbia) #10 – Belo Horizonte (Brazil)
BRAZILIAN ISP VIVO BOASTS HIGHEST TV SHOW VIEWERSHIP IN P2P NETWORKS
Different ISPs were used to share “Vikings” files in each country since March 2013. According to the country rankings, most of the TV show’s viewership entered P2P networks with Vivo in Brazil, Rostelecom in Russia and Telefonica de Espana in Spain.
Curious about how the story around “Vikings” will continue to unfold with Season 5? Follow us on LinkedIn to stay tuned; we will keep you updated with new file sharing info and audience insights for the upcoming seasons.
Interested in more facts about file sharing statistics and the piracy landscape of different countries? Check out this article to find out what’s trending within file sharing networks in the United States, India, Russia and China.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. A growing fan base: Since 2013, the viewership numbers have been increasing strongly each year
2. Total TV viewership numbers (sum of daily file sharers) for “Vikings” between March 3, 2013 and November 20, 2017: 270 million
3. The most engaged viewers were located in Russia, Brazil and Spain
4. Not only the countries but also the city ranking uncovered high potential markets. File sharers in Athens (Greece) and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) are also showing huge interest in Histroy's "Vikings"
5. "Vikings" evolved to one of the most popular TV shows in the world, competing against other popular series like AMC's "The Walking Dead"
Source file sharing data: TECXIPIO PIC Definition: The file sharing data is based on number of unique file sharers: How many peers (file sharers) shared at least one file of 'Vikings' within a certain time period?
Other sources: * https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/vikings-season-six-renewal-history-tv-series/
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