Early indications on Netflix’s top 10 list made it seem like it would be the case, as The Witcher season 4 failed to make it to #1, but now we have hard numbers from Netflix itself. And they are not good.
In its initial week, which began with its release on October 30, Netflix data has from October 27 through November 2 that shows The Witcher season 4 at just 7.4 million views, which puts it behind Nobody Wants This season 2, which had 9.4 million views in its second week on the chart. This echoes the fact that The Witcher season 4 failed to ever pass Nobody Wants This on the Top 10 list, and it’s just a brutal drop from previous seasons. No, it’s not a full week and if it were, it may have squeaked by Nobody Wants This, but the first four days are going to be its biggest viewership days, which are tracked here.
This is the worst performance The Witcher has had to date by a significant margin. Season 3 had 15.2 million views during its premiere week in 2023. So, best case, with a few extra days, viewership maybe dropped by a third. Worst case, by half. Why?
- The gap between seasons was too long, over two years.
- The lead of the entire series was recast, and Henry Cavill was one aspect of the show most fans seemed to agree was one of its biggest assets.
- The show was already declining in quality the last two seasons, generating less excitement for a fourth.
- The show didn’t show up convincing everyone it was good again, as review scores from both critics and audiences were the lowest of the series.
The Witcher season 4
Netflix
But this…doesn’t matter? The Witcher seasons 4 and 5 were filmed back-to-back, so there’s no question of whether it will be renewed for its planned final season. That’s already happening, and because of the way it was filmed, it may actually be out within the year. But I imagine this may have killed any further Witcher spin-off projects, as there have been a (bad) live-action side-series, two (good) animated projects and now a “Rats”-based movie that launched with season 4 that did not even chart on Netflix’s top 10 list at all, which is stunning.
The situation reminds me of what happened recently with Amazon’s Rings of Power, which lost half its viewers for its second season. That’s a show that also supposedly had a five-year plan, but it took months and months to confirm that a third season was actually coming. While The Witcher will finish its run, I am curious to see if Amazon is going to commit to two more hugely expensive seasons of Rings of Power. But that’s a question for another day.
Funnily enough, after watching season 4 of The Witcher, I don’t even think it’s…bad? Cavill is missed, but Hemsworth is actually okay. And I would say that season 4 is better than seasons 2 and 3, at least, with a double-episode blockbuster finale that has two of the best episodes of the series. But there is no way around it; these viewership numbers are awful.
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/11/05/the-witcher-season-4-viewership-has-totally-tanked-on-netflix/
