Jack Ryan, Homecoming Amazon’s most binge-watched series in 2018

If you follow the world of streaming rather closely (as we do here at CarterMatt), there may be one thing that you are rather-familiar with already: The fact that neither Netflix, Hulu, nor Amazon feels the need to publicly share any information about their shows or their performances. There’s no unified body to measure some of their numbers and with that in mind, they can really choose to share numbers at their own discretion.

Today however, Amazon did at least choose to announce their two most binge-watched original series of the year in a new infographic, and the results shouldn’t be all that much of a surprise. Jack Ryan and Homecoming share in the honor, and when you think about it, both choices make sense.

When it comes to Jack Ryan, it was aided from the start in having a well-known star in John Krasinski and also being based on the super-popular work of author Tom Clancy. Amazon followed that up with a rather-robust promotional campaign and gave viewers assurances that more would be coming via an early season 2 renewal. We do think that it helps viewers dramatically to know that shows have a long life ahead of them; otherwise, their may be a reluctance to make that initial commitment.

Meanwhile, with Homecoming you have another show with an extensive marketing campaign, a prolific producer in Mr. Robot’s Sam Esmail, and also a marquee star in Julia Roberts. We do think that her presence alone was the biggest thing this series had going for it, especially since she has not exactly done a ton of TV roles throughout her career. Homecoming also has the benefit of having a season 2 renewal out there already, so viewers can know and feel confident that it will be around for them to watch for quite some time moving into the future. For us, Homecoming is one of the best new shows of the year and it’s not really even close.

Do we think that these two shows can retain some of their popularity? Sure, but they are going to have some steep competition coming this week via the return of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Down the line, there could be some other competition with the upcoming Lord of the Rings series that Amazon has been working on for a good while now, though there isn’t all that much in the way of information out there at present about a specific premiere date for it.

For now, congratulations to Jack Ryan and Homecoming! Given that there are so many shows out there on Amazon these days and that number is rapidly expanding, this is a rather-nice honor to be able to hang your hat on.

What do you think about Jack Ryan and Homecoming being two of the most binge-watched shows on Amazon this year? Be sure to share some of your thoughts now in the attached comments! (Photo: Amazon.)