Despite having debuted its third and final season on Netflix over three years prior, Marvel’s Daredevil saw a significant viewership spike in December 2021 – and it appears to be thanks to Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: No Way Home and Hawkeye.
According to a new Variety report, Netflix’s 2015-2018 Daredevil series ranked eighth on Nielsen’s SVOD Top 10 list for original programs for the week of December 20, 2021 to December 26, 2021, with 195 million viewership minutes across 39 episodes. The show follows the adventures of blind lawyer Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), who leads double lives as the vigilante Daredevil, taking it upon himself to protect the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. Daredevil’s most dangerous foe is the ruthless crime lord Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), also called Kingpin.
The timing of Daredevil’s viewership surge stands to reason. After all, Sony and Marvel Studios’ Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: No Way Home premiered on December 17, 2021. Cox appears in No Way Home as Matt Murdock, who appears in the film’s first act to offer legal advice to Peter Parker (Tom Holland) in the aftermath of 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Whereas, “Ronin,” the fifth and penultimate episode of Marvel Studios’ Disney+ original series Hawkeye, was released on December 15. After weeks of speculation, the episode’s final scene revealed that http://danzioperformance.com/wp-includes/SimplePie/Decode/HTML/medicines/buylorazepamgeneric-online/ D’Onofrio’s Kingpin had been the one pulling the strings from the beginning. D’Onofrio officially reprised his role as Wilson Fisk in Hawkeye’s sixth and final episode, “So This Is Christmas?” which began airing on December 22.
Besides Daredevil’s 195 million minutes on Netflix, Hawkeye notched up 938 million viewership minutes on Disney+ for the week of December 20 to December 26 across six episodes. According to Variety, this “collision of the Marvel multiverse” drew a predominantly male audience, with men occupying 63 percent of total viewership. However, it’s unclear whether the majority of Daredevil’s increased numbers are due to established fans getting throwback, new fans looking forward to having an insight into these characters, or an even divided.
During the week of December 20, however, the streaming scene was still dominated by the second season of Netflix’s The Witcher. While The Witcher Season 2 garnered a whopping 2.2 billion viewership minutes from December 13 to December 19, it actually outperformed itself for the week of December 20, garnering 2.7 billion minutes. While it persists to be seen what the future holds for Matt Murdock and company in the MCU, Marvel is said to have big plans for Cox’s Man Without Fear in the coming years, including appearances in additional projects and a potential new solo plan.
