Much has been made about SFA’s less than stellar ranking on Paramount+ in the United States and the early US Nielsen rankings (from the first two weeks in January).
This Flix Patrol global roll up of the show’s rankings across streamers provides some helpful insights. Keep in mind that Flix Patrol looks at overall rankings, not just recent releases or originals.
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Starfleet Academy is doing very well outside of North America
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SFA is doing well on SkyShowtime across many countries -
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globally, SFA is doing very well on Amazon channels - # 1 in Germany, # 2 in the US and UK
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the streamer where SFA is performing worst is Paramount+ in the United States, which has arguably targeted a red state US market since the ViacomCBS merger, to the detriment of other demographics.
All this seems to say that Starfleet Academy is a global hit for Paramount, reaching new demographics and new markets, but not a fit for the Sheridanverse Pro sports streamer Paramount+ was narrowed towards.
No idea if the executives at Paramount are paying attention to anything beyond Paramount+ or the US market, but my assessment is that SFA provides genuine diversification and is successfully reaching a global audience in a way that Star Trek shows historically have not.
It has its ups and downs but many of us view it as the strongest live action first season in this era.
For older fans, episodes 5, 6 and 8 seem to be the favourites so far.
In fact episode 8 is so important for 90s fans, that I would argue that it’s worth hanging in until then at minimum.