Andor just pulled off an impressive trick by becoming the No. 1 streaming title in the United States for the week ending May 18, 2025. According to Nielsen’s Top 10, the Disney Plus series racked up 931 million minutes watched, topping the charts and beating out the Bluey juggernaut and Netflix’s sleeper hit Nonnas.
Andor takes the top spot in the Nielsen streaming ratings – Nielsen
But before Lucasfilm pops the champagne, there’s a catch—or rather, several.
Disney Gamed the System
At first glance, this looks like a huge win for Disney and Lucasfilm. But a deeper look at how Nielsen calculates its rankings shows the numbers don’t necessarily reflect massive audience size. Disney rolled out an interesting release schedule for Andor, releasing three episodes at the same time each week.
It should be noted that Nielsen measures total minutes watched, not unique viewers or households. So when Disney drops three full episodes in one week, it automatically inflates the total viewership time.
Mon Mothma in Andor – YouTube, Star Wars
If, for example, each episode clocked in at around 45 minutes, that’s 135 minutes per viewer for just one sit-through. Meaning a single viewer watching all three episodes can look like three viewers on the metrics. It’s not dishonest, per se—but it’s far from a fair apples-to-apples comparison with weekly releases or shorter content.
This tactic helped Andor climb steadily in the charts throughout its second season.
Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) in Lucasfilm’s ANDOR, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
In week 1 it got 721 million minutes. Week 2 garnered 821 million minutes watched. Week 3 earned 830 million minutes. And Week 4 (the finale) got 931 million minutes watched. One also needs to consider the fact that new viewers coming in late would go back and binge watch previous episodes, which would also inflate these numbers.
That final spike coincided with the release of the last three episodes. Surprise, surprise.
It’s also worth noting that Andor’s top spot came with a major asterisk when compared to Netflix’s Nonnas, which landed just behind it in second place with 848 million minutes watched. And that was as a single film, not an entire series. That means Nonnas came within striking distance of Andor’s 931 million minutes despite Disney dropping three full episodes in the same week with 24 whole episodes out at the time.
It puts into perspective just how much the episode-dump strategy skewed the numbers in Andor’s favor.
A Big Win for Tony Gilroy, Not Dave Filoni
The other awkward angle here is that Andor is perhaps the least Filoni-esque Star Wars series in existence. Series creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy has famously worked outside the purview of Lucasfilm chief creative officer Dave Filoni, who oversaw disastrous critical and commercial failures like The Acolyte, Ahsoka, and Skeleton Crew.
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 08: Dave Filoni attends the Ahsoka panel at Start Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 08, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney)
Gilroy sidestepped Filoni’s creative oversight and answered directly to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. This, according to rumors swirling about Lucasfilm, has led to some internal friction with Filoni and his team becoming frustrated when people refer to Andor as “the good one.”
This matters because Filoni, the current Chief Creative Officer of Lucasfilm and rumored co-heir apparent to the Star Wars empire alongside Carrie Beck had virtually no involvement in Andor. That means Andor’s success isn’t just a feather in Kennedy’s cap—it’s potentially a subtle rebuke to Filoni’s grip on the franchise’s future.
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 08: Dave Filoni onstage during the Ahsoka panel at the Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 08, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney)
With Kennedy expected to step down within the next 12 months, insiders believe Filoni and Beck will serve as co-heads of Lucasfilm’s creative arm. But Andor’s critical and ratings success—entirely without Filoni’s influence—could complicate that perception.
Rogue One Rebounds, Emmy Buzz Builds
Nielsen also noted a surprise resurgence for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the 2016 film that Andor directly ties into. The movie landed at No. 9 in the movie charts with 179 million minutes watched, likely due to fans revisiting it as the grand finale to Andor’s storyline. It’s a rare instance where a nearly decade-old movie can ride the coattails of a prequel series back into the charts.
(L-R): Dave Filoni and Rosario Dawson on the set of Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
On the awards side, Andor is expected to dominate Disney’s Emmy campaign, with 23 submissions across writing, directing, and acting categories. The final five episodes of the series reportedly hit 9.5 or above on IMDb—the first time any show has hit that benchmark in succession, according to Forbes.
Bottom Line
Disney’s Andor is a critical darling and, thanks to clever release timing, a streaming juggernaut. But it’s also a reminder that success can come from outside the “official” creative vision of the Filoni era for Star Wars. That’s a storyline worth watching as Lucasfilm charts its next phase.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MAY 23: (L-R) Leslye Headland, Dave Filoni, Chief Creative Officer, Lucasfilm and Kathleen Kennedy, President, Lucasfilm attend the launch event for Lucasfilm’s new Star Wars series The Acolyte at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on May 23, 2024. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
Because if the most successful Disney Star Wars series is the one that ignores Dave Filoni entirely… what does that say about the future of Lucasfilm under his creative direction?
Are you surprised that Andor dominated the Streaming Charts? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
Andor is still Disney woke slop.
Never seen it but it sounds more like a pile of # 2 as opposed to being a # 1 somewhere.