The Mandalorian Season 3 Trailer Broke Viewership Record For Lucasfilm's Disney+ Offerings

If you needed any proof that "Star Wars" fans are crazy for space daddy and his weird adopted telekinetic son, it turns out that the trailer for season 3 of "The Mandalorian" completely smashed Disney+'s records for trailer views. The metric they focus on when looking at trailer views is how many total views in the first 24 hours and the previous record-holder for Disney+ was the trailer for "Obi-Wan Kenobi" which locked in a substantial 58 million views in its first 24 hours.

Well, Mando left poor Obi-Wan in the dust, garnering 83.5 million views in its first 24 hours, per The Hollywood Reporter. 

The trailer debuted January 16 during an NFL game and was instantaneously released online, giving viewers their first look at what Mando and Grogu have been up to since they were reunited in last year's "The Book of Boba Fett." Series favorites Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris), The Armorer (Emily Swallow), and even "The Rise of Skywalker" standout Babu Frik make appearances in a trailer that promises a journey of redemption for Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) who broke the Mandalorian code and must atone in some way if he is to consider himself worthy of wearing the armor.

The trailer also promises glimpses of Grogu's past, which seems to go all the way back to Order 66 if the flashbacks we've gotten in the Disney+ "Star Wars" shows are any indication. Now, this might be a record for Lucasfilm's Disney+ output, but it's still not the biggest "Star Wars" trailer ever online. "The Force Awakens" trailer was viewed 112 million times in its first 24 hours, "The Last Jedi" trailer was viewed over 120 million times in 24 hours, and "The Rise of Skywalker" hit 111 million views.

If "The Phantom Menace" had released its trailer in today's totally online world it'd be a safe bet that it would have dwarfed all those numbers as well. If you're old enough to have been a part of that phenomenon, you know just how crazy the world went for that trailer.

Trailer views are interesting statistics, but ultimately they don't mean much beyond an early measure of audience interest in a film or series. That's not nothing, of course. Grabbing eyeballs is particularly hard in the streaming era where there's always something new and shiny demanding the audience's attention, but these numbers for "The Mandalorian" season 3 trailer for sure show that audiences are ready for more adventures with everybody's favorite space "Lone Wolf and Cub" duo.

Season 3 of "The Mandalorian" arrives on March 1, 2023.