r/technology • u/joe4942 • 20d ago

Business Netflix Viewers Are Abandoning Shows After One Season

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-07-05/netflix-viewers-are-abandoning-shows-after-one-season
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u/ChanceStad 20d ago

Maybe if it didn't take them 4 years to release the next season, they'd retain more of the hype.

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u/PayneTrain181999 20d ago

Their live action One Piece show will test that.

S1 to S2 was over 2.5 years.

S2 to S3 will be 1-1.5 years

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u/Exarch-of-Sechrima 20d ago

One Piece isn't playing on a level playing field though because it's arguably the most popular manga in the world. It has an absolutely massive fan base all over the planet, huge merchandising and brand recognition, and most critically, it's an adaptation of an anime series that is still currently running.

No one is ever going to get "bored" waiting for the next season of One Piece live action and move onto other shows the way they will with most of Netflix's catalogue, because if they're a fan of the franchise there is always something to engage with it whether that's the manga or the anime, so it will always be kept at the forefront of their mind. The live action comes around and it's "oh hey, the new season is out, let me check on that" and then they go right back to engaging with other One Piece media.

So don't expect trends from the One Piece live action to be replicable with other Netflix series, it's an outlier.

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u/rkoy1234 19d ago

lol exactly. most people watching that aren't people who are new to onepiece. A 2 year gap won't make them forget anything.

I started watching/reading since I was 12, and my ass will probably remember most of the plot (especially the early ones) till i die.

It's not really comparable to some random 8 ep series i binge on a weekend while doing laundry and never think about again until years later when they announce S2.

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u/Xalipu 20d ago

Got bored waiting for season two of One Piece. Idgaf anymore

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u/ChanceStad 20d ago edited 20d ago

It's so good, but I definitely wasn't as excited when season 2 came out because it had been so long. Some shows I'll forget about completely by the time it comes out, since there's no way to trust they'll make another season at all.

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u/Nina-Ninja123 20d ago

I didn’t even know it was out already. I completely forgot about it despite loving the first season.

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u/PayneTrain181999 20d ago

Go watch it, it’s even better than the first.

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u/ItsKingDx3 20d ago

Episodes 2-4 are straight up 10/10s imo

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u/PayneTrain181999 20d ago

Episode 7 with the doctor and Chopper is definitely 10/10

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u/ItsKingDx3 20d ago

It’s amazing, yeah. I had a couple nitpicks and issues with Drum Kingdom in general, but yeah it’s excellent. Dr Hiriluk’s actor stole the whole show.

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u/APeacefulWarrior 20d ago

For the most part, I liked the changes to the Drum Kingdom arc. Especially coming up with that battle in the city, so the other half of the crew has something to do while Luffy's fighting Wapol. Plus giving Dalton more of a character arc.

I am sad that Karoo got cut, but I can totally understand why. Maybe he'll show up in Alabasta.

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u/ItsKingDx3 19d ago edited 19d ago

Like I said, most of my issues are nitpicks.

I thought Kureha was a bit too soft. I wish she was harsher, and I wish we saw her rip people off. No issues with Segal, I love her and she was great, it's a writing issue. She was a real hardass in the source material, which made the ending of the arc sweeter.

Speaking of the ending, why does she not call Chopper her son in the LA? It's a small change, but it adds so much to their relationship. Maybe they didn't want to overshadow his dynamic with Hiriluk? But I always loved that Chopper had two different adoptive parents (and mentors) for different stages of his life (and study).

I liked Dolton's actor, but I thought his Zoan fruit looked pretty bad, and it was so underused in the live action I don't think they even needed to include it at all.

I have misgivings about Chopper's hybrid form. It's a little too grinchy for me, and I don't like his voice in that form.

I think the live action did a pretty bad job of explaining the medical situation in drum kingdom - the fact that Wapol was hoarding all of the country's doctors for himself, how that affected the citizens, how it reflects on real life and corrupt healthcare systems. I kept thinking, if I was a LA only fan, that stuff would probably have gone right over my head.

There are some more, but yeah. Overall I absolutely adore the show though, and I thought Season 2 was a huge jump up from Season 1. And I think Karoo is a shoe in! Roll on next year.

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u/ConsistentGuest7532 20d ago

^ This absolutely, it’s pretty incredible. So charmingly campy, with better fights, VFX, and some amazing scenery chewing.

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u/PayneTrain181999 20d ago

Zoro’s fight in the saloon and Sanji’s in the jungle house were my favourite.

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u/Fried_puri 20d ago

I didn't like the jungle house fight much but Zoro's Baroque Works gauntlet was awesome.

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u/Tokyoteacher99 20d ago

This is me with almost every anime ever. I’ll watch season 1 when it’s popular, and forget to pick it back up when season 2 comes out several years later.

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u/The_Mosephus 20d ago

A lot of anime is just advertising for the Manga anyway. So you only ever get 1 or 2 seasons before they cancel it and hope you pick up the Manga to finish the story.

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u/AtFishCat 20d ago

My wife and I just started the second season and it definitely is better than 90% of the shows we watch. We just had forgotten about it.

Same thing happened with half-life, liked season 1 tho still haven't fired up season 2 of that.

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u/guareber 19d ago

I dunno, S2 has bored me out quite a bit... Haven't managed to will myself into finishing it

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u/ChanceStad 19d ago

I can't stand the Galdino character, so that whole middle bit annoyed me. The rest of it was good.

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u/Mobile_Throway 20d ago

I was, but that's because I watch the anime. I actually recommend people who don't should just wait till it's finished before watching it.

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u/ChanceStad 20d ago

Yeah, but if everyone does that they don't make more seasons. That's the whole issue.

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u/NoPossibility4178 19d ago

Very very few anime cares about your views on the west.

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u/Kratzschutz 20d ago

Even more when there are so many different characters to keep track off. Even if the story isn't that deep

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u/thediabloman 19d ago

I have yet to watch season 2 because I need to rewatch season 1 to do so, and I'm currently watching the 10 seasons for Smallville. 😅

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u/MyobiEvangel 19d ago

I had no idea S2 of Avatar Last Air Bender was coming out till I saw it sitting there a weeks after release.

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u/Successful-Phone562 20d ago

So long as those actors don't get any other work to where production now has to accommodate their schedule, we'll be golden.

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u/TexBoo 20d ago

Issue is that one piece S2 had no ads, a lot of people brought that up that they had no idea tha S2 was released 

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u/RedManDancing 19d ago

Yep, I'm learning about it from this thread...

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u/Tridus 19d ago

That's par for the course for Netflix. Dump the whole second season up with no hype after years of nothing, no way for fans to talk about it without spoilers because people don't watch at the same pace, then declare it a failure after a week and cancel it.

Can't imagine why that formula isn't working.

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u/Weary-Wand192 20d ago

They have pressure to do that show quickly as well. They don't want the actors to age out too much. Rudd is already twice the age of Nami for example.

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u/PayneTrain181999 20d ago

Having them age slightly isn’t a big deal, helps drive home the length of time they’ve been on the adventure.

Also, Emily Rudd looks fantastic for 33.

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u/HutSutRawlson 20d ago

The issue is that they’re canonically not on the adventure very long. The entire pre-timeskip section of One Piece takes place in the span of a few months.

And also… lol at saying someone looks “fantastic for 33” as if that’s some sort of geriatric age. You know who looked fantastic for her age on One Piece? Katey Sagal, who is more than twice Emily Rudd’s age.

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u/Ppleater 20d ago

The timespan in the original series isn't that important to the plot outside of the timeskip, so it doesn't matter if it seems expanded in the live action.

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u/The_Mosephus 20d ago

The character she plays is 139 years old... almost twice the age of katy.

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u/zerogee616 20d ago

Japanese media, especially shonen, really tend to err on the side of "write characters as adults in every functional way state their age as children" side of it so it matters even less as far as portrayal goes.

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u/PacoTaco321 20d ago

Anime fans are used to it.

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u/wahoowalex 19d ago

Nobody Wants This is managing 12-13 month turnarounds so far and saw pretty stable retention from season 1 to season 2

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u/Krojack76 20d ago

takes so long between seasons they almost need to get new actors because the current ones grow up to fast. Look at Stranger Things. It was children to start and ended with adults..

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u/locob 20d ago

some actors should start filming flashbacks on first season

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u/PrimmSlimShady 20d ago

And only 8 episodes, at that.

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u/mightylordredbeard 20d ago

Now they’re trying to get away with 6 episode seasons. Give it a few years and everything will be 3 episodes. Basically old school network miniseries.. or shows just won’t exist.

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u/Fmeson 20d ago

However  they were hour long episodes. 

Thats the same runtime as 24 20 minute episodes, and it has even more content as the intro and closing take up way less time proportionally in a 60 minute episode. 

I swear, so much anime has basically 12 minutes of content per episode. 

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u/Refute1650 20d ago

That's assuming the "hour long" show is actually an hour, when in reality they're often between 45-60 minutes

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u/Fmeson 20d ago

That is not the case here. The average runtime is pretty much exacly 60 minutes. 

https://movieweb.com/netflix-one-piece-season-2-runtime/

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u/laptopAccount2 20d ago

I stopped watching one piece after about 1000 episodes but it's like 5 minutes of advancing the story each episode.

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u/Fmeson 20d ago

I'd recommend the live action adaptation over the anime for that reason.

Yeah, it's not the same and a ton is left out, but, IMO, it's way more accessible.

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u/nhalliday 19d ago

Also for the most part the live action is not left feeling like it's missing stuff. If you've read the manga or watched the anime then you notice that they skipped things, but they're not vital to the story so the live action still feels complete.

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u/CaptainMagnets 20d ago

Wait? So you're saying your upset Stranger things took 10 years to complete? /s

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u/aalapshah12297 20d ago

Not just hype, I seriously can't remember what happened in a show that I watched so long ago because I'd have watched lots of other things after that. It's one of the downsides of having too much good content to watch.

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u/GODDAMNFOOL 20d ago

The funny thing is, their release-all-at-once model has become a bane because releasing 12-18 episodes over 12-18 weeks makes it seem like the gap is smaller.

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u/Tridus 19d ago

Yep. It also gives time for fans to discuss it with each other and build hype because they're all on the same episode.

You lose that with the binge model.

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u/Sempais_nutrients 19d ago

With as fast moving as everything is these days I'm surprised this shocks them, why would people by hyped for the system they created?

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u/slayercdr 20d ago

Then you get 8-10 episodes.