Kevin Harrish
Sun, July 5, 2026 at 3:18 AM UTC
3 min read
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- Netflix is facing a significant issue with viewership dropping for second seasons of its most popular shows, unlike HBO which has seen some shows perform better in follow-up seasons.
- Shows like The Four Seasons, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder experienced significant drops in viewership between their first and second seasons on Netflix.
- The difference in viewership trends between Netflix and HBO could be attributed to Netflix’s strategy of releasing shows all at once compared to HBO’s weekly releases, as well as Netflix’s focus on attracting new subscribers rather than retaining existing ones.
Netflix boasts the largest and most expansive library of original shows of any streaming service, but it does face one rather significant problem: customers aren’t coming back for follow-up seasons
While Netflix is regularly rolling out new series and renewing the ones that are successful, the unfortunate reality is that viewership has been cratering for second seasons of shows that are renewed, and that’s obviously a pretty significant problem for the streaming giant
Second Seasons Aren’t Performing
In an article for The Guardian this week, Stuart Heritage pointed out the rather significant issues that Netflix has been having attracting viewers to follow-up seasons of its biggest shows, and he had rather telling data to highlight the problem
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As Heritage points out, The Four Seasonshad a 63% dropoff in viewership between season 1 and season 2. Avatar: The Last Airbender lost 59% of its viewers between seasons, while Beef had a 58% drop for its second season. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murdersaw an 80% drop while A Man on the Insidedid not even crack Netflix’s top 10 for its second season
All of these were relatively high-profile shows that performed quite well during their first seasons, but appear to have fallen flat in their second seasons, despite big-name actors and notable creators
HBO Does Not Have the Same Issue
While it could be easy to blame the nature of modern television in the streaming era, where viewers simply lose interest with years between series, the reality is that HBO does not share the same issues as Netflix. In fact, many HBO shows have actually been performing better in follow-up seasons
“HBO takes a similarly long time to drag its shows back to air, and viewership doesn’t seem to suffer nearly as much,” Heritage points out for The Guardian. “The Last of Us gained 600,000 viewers between seasons, despite being off air for two years. The audience for The White Lotus jumped 63% between seasons one and two, and another 57% for season three.”
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While not every HBO show has seen these gains, with House of the Dragonactually seeing an 8% dip on HBO between season 2 and season 3, even that drop is radically different than the the massive viewership drops experienced by Netflix’s shows
Heritage could only speculate as to why this is the case, but he suggested that Netflix’s strategy of releasing shows all at once – compared to HBO, which releases its biggest shows weekly – could be the case. Additionally, he argues that Netflix’s primary goal is to attract new subscribers, not viewers, which means the streaming giant would put more effort into creating and marketing its new shows to attract new subscribers rather than follow-up seasons for those already subscribed
In any case, this is a pretty significant problem for Netflix, and it could be the reason why the streamer has made a bit of a habit of canceling shows after just one season, even amongst its most-watched shows
This story was originally published byMen’s Journalon Jul 5, 2026, where it first appeared in the<a href="https://comicvibe.com/sphere-entertainment-sphr-stock-may-trade-at-a-discount-on-cash-flow-while-earnings-look-rich/” title=”Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) Stock May Trade At A Discount On Cash Flow While Earnings Look Rich”>Entertainmentsection. Add Men’s Journal as aPreferred
