Apple TV+'s best sci-fi show just smashed viewing records, too

Apple TV+ is renowned for its sci-fi shows, with For All Mankind, Silo, Foundation, and Dark Matter all proving hugely successful for the streaming service. But, there's one that has dwarfed the rest when it comes to critical response and now viewing figures.

Severance may be two parts genius, one part baffling, but it has smashed Apple's streaming records – overtaking even the mighty Ted Lasso in terms of minutes streamed.

Severance — Season 2 Official Trailer | Apple TV+ - YouTube

Watch On

Apple itself claims that the show has become its most successful since the service started, with the most amount of unique viewers for any series in a single month – from 17 January to 17 February 2025.

That includes the first five episodes of the second season along with new views of the first as fans catch up.

Also, according to Deadline, the first episode of season 2 helped the show hit 589 million minutes of streaming time in its launch week of 13 January 2025. And that's in the US alone.

In many ways, this is fairly surprising – not based its quality, but it's a high-concept sci-fi drama that's hardly prime time slop. Maybe it's proof positive that the wider audience isn't quite as dumb as some networks think.

Apple will certainly be happy, it is reported that each episode of season 2 cost approximately $20 million to make. So with 10 in total, the overall budget is on a par with the estimated cost of Star Wars: Rogue One. Those were mightily expensive corridors.

Severance season 2 runs until Friday 21 March, with the finale being directed by co-executive producer Ben Stiller. It has already been picked up for third and fourth seasons, with the production company promising that the gap between them will be much shorter this time.