The Witcher Season 3 Volume 2 has the distinction of being the last three episodes to feature Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia. That said, the latter half of the third season would have been a highly anticipated release as fans were expected to tune in to say goodbye to Cavill's incarnation of the White Wolf. However, the viewership data on the new episodes proved this wasn't the case.
Last year, Henry Cavill announced his departure from The Witcher soon after production concluded on the third season. According to Cavill, his journey as the Butcher of Blaviken has ended and he is passing the reins to The Hunger Games actor Liam Hemsworth. Still, fans were assured that they would still get to see Cavill for the last time in The Witcher Season 3.
But were people really eager to see Cavill's Geralt one last time? The data analytics platform Samba TV reports that the first episode of The Witcher Season 3 Volume 2 was streamed by 547,000 US households during its first four days on Netflix. It's a great number but it pales in comparison to Volume 1's first episode which was seen by 1.1 million US households on its first six days. Sure, there's a two-day advantage but that's a difference of another half million households within just 48 hours. It's a huge drop considering that people couldn't stop talking about Cavill's last episode with the series only weeks before the premiere.
So what truly happened that led to a huge viewership drop for The Witcher Season 3 Volume 2? Many might point out that it had to do with the first volume being dropped right before the Fourth of July weekend which may have helped the numbers. On the other hand, The Witcher has always had huge viewership in the past two seasons.
Although it has not yet been confirmed, there is a possibility that the split season affected the viewership. Season 3 is the first time that the show split its episodes into two volumes and it may have led to The Witcher fatigue. On a lighter note, there's always a chance that fans were not ready to say goodbye to Henry Cavill and waited a few days before watching his last three episodes.
All eight episodes of The Witcher Season 3 are now streaming on Netflix.
