Halo series premiere smashes Paramount+ viewership record

The premiere of the highly anticipated Halo TV series on 24th March was reportedly a hit on the digital streaming platform Paramount+.

According to a report by Deadline, the show topped the record of the most-watched series premiere, previously held by American drama series Yellowstone, within the first 24 hours of launch.

The series' success marks yet another accolade for the Halo franchise despite being delayed for seven years. The show also builds on the success of Halo Infinite, released in December last year.

Halo TV series was the most-watched premiere on Paramount Plus

While Paramount did not divulge specific figures for the Halo TV series, Nielsen Live+3 statistics reported that the Yellowstone Season 1 premiere raked in nearly 5 million (4.8M) viewers, which should give a rough indication of its viewership figures.

Tanya Gile, the Chief Programming Officer at Paramount+, told Deadline, "Bringing Halo to life as a streaming series has been one of the most rewarding efforts for Paramount+ to date, and we could not be more thrilled at the massive fan response to the series' debut."

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Gile continued, adding, "Along with our phenomenal partners at Showtime, 343 Industries and Amblin Television, we cannot wait for fans to experience more of this incredible universe."

Noteworthy, the first episode of Halo hasn't boded well with everyone, with PC Gamer's feature writer Natalie Clayton saying that it's simply not set up for television. "It is a poor adaptation, through and through. But the more I think about Halo, the more I reckon that Microsoft's flagpole FPS simply isn't set up for TV," said Clayton.

Indeed, this conflicts with Paramount's branding of its supposed "hit" new series and certainly raises an eyebrow, especially given that the studio (conveniently?) failed to release the show's premiere viewership figures. But I guess we'll just have to believe them.

The Halo TV series comprises nine episodes,  premiering weekly on Thursdays at 3 am ET (7 am GMT | 8 am BST). The next episode (i.e., Episode 2) premieres on 31st March, and the final episode will premiere on 19th May.

You can watch the Halo TV show by subscribing to the Paramount+ streaming service. Notably, the service is not accessible in all countries, with current availability restricted to Australia, Canada, Latin America, the Middle East (as a pay-TV channel), the Nordics, and United States.

Featured image courtesy of Paramount.