Peacemaker Season 1 was universally loved, launching Chris Smith into the mainstream and getting Wig Wam's "Do Ya Wanna Taste It" stuck in the heads of millions of people. Unfortunately, the show's eight-episode second season did not necessarily enjoy the same critical reception. Though the first few episodes were quite warmly received, perception on the project took a steep decline upon the airing of its finale, "Full Nelson." Aside from its critical woes, however, it remained to be seen how the show had performed in terms of viewership. Now, thanks to new data, we have an idea.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Peacemaker got a spot on the Nielsen streaming charts. However, the show is said to have barely reached the top 10 of the "Original Series" category for the period of October 6-October 12. That week, Peacemaker accumulated 398 million minutes of watch time. Per THR, the Season 2 finale (which came out October 9) accounted for 42% of the total viewership, which translates to roughly 167 million minutes watched. It's important to point out that the viewership numbers appear to be for all 16 episodes of the series, not just Season 2.
With that, it means the show's remaining 15 episodes received a combined 231 million minutes of watch time during the week. Generalizing the viewership and dividing evenly into 15, we get an approximate 15.4 million minutes of watch time per episode (again, not counting the finale). Keep in mind, though, this may not be an accurate representation of viewing numbers for the series, given viewership fluctuation for each episode, and varying interest between Season 1 and Season 2 (meaning, more people were likely watching Season 2, as opposed to Season 1).
This marks the first time a DC show on HBO Max has made it to the Nielsen Top 10. For context, DC-based shows released on HBO Max include Creature Commandos and Harley Quinn.
Is Peacemaker Season 2 a Success?
With this information, was Peacemaker's second season a success? It's difficult to give a firm answer given how the viewership numbers only cover one week. However, there is enough context around the data provided to answer the question with an educated guess.
For starters, Peacemaker's numbers were significantly lower than other projects on the chart for the same week of October 6-12. The number 1 spot, for example, was claimed for a second week by Netflix's Monster: The Ed Gein Story. The show is said to have had a 51% increase from the week prior, raking in 2.3 billion minutes of watch time. To provide full context for Peacemaker's audience size, the top 10 shows on Nielsen's "Original Series" ranking are listed below:
- Monster: The Ed Gein Story (Netflix) — 2.3 billion minutes
- Love is Blind (Netflix) — 1.1 billion minutes
- Halo (Netflix/Paramount+) — 517 million minutes
- Is It Cake? Halloween (Netflix) — 512 million minutes
- Tulsa King (Paramount+) — 509 million minutes
- Wayward (Netflix) — 505 million minutes
- The Great British Baking Show (Netflix) — 474 million minutes
- Boots (Netflix) — 434 million minutes
- Wednesday (Netflix) — 426 million minutes
- Peacemaker (HBO Max) — 398 million minutes
Of course, it's important to mention that Nielsen does not count watch minutes on tablets, phones or computers; it only accounts for watch minutes on televisions. It also only counts US views, not international ones. As such, Peacemaker Season 2's worldwide impact cannot be quantified from the figures provided here.
With that said, going only by this data, it would appear that, even though Peacemaker had a viewership count moderate enough to appear on Nielsen's top 10 chart, the series was not necessarily a major hit.
To provide context for that assessment, Wednesday Season 2 was released in two parts—the first one on August 6, and the second one on September 3. Thus, the first part of the season premiered significantly earlier than Peacemaker Season 2, and its second part came out right in the middle of Peacemaker's weekly release. The DC Studios series then continued releasing episodes long after Wednesday had completed airing. Despite that significant difference in release windows, and the fact that Wednesday had long finished airing by the period accounted for by Nielsen, the Netflix series still outpaced Peacemaker by 28 million minutes of watch time.
Now, it could be argued that this difference is due to Peacemaker being a much more niche show than Wednesday, which has proven to be a big hit for Netflix. Though that would be understandable to assume, the viewership difference between the shows is still evidence of the smaller audience reached by Peacemker—in the United States, at least.
Keep in mind, this is not to say Peacemaker was a flop by any means. As mentioned, its audience was moderately large, just perhaps not large enough to be considered a major success for HBO Max.
Both seasons of Peacemaker are streaming on HBO Max.