Netflix's One Piece Just Topped Wednesday & Stranger Things In One Major Way
Netflix's live-action adaptation of author Eiichiro Oda's legendary manga series "One Piece" is now securely within in the upper echelons of its most successful projects after beating out two of its biggest hits in "Wednesday" and "Stranger Things" by one notable metric.
As reported by outlets like The Independent, just after the release of its first season "One Piece" secured the number one spot on Netflix's Top 10 list in a total of 84 countries. This is now the record for most countries in which a single show has held that spot. Previously, "Wednesday" and "Stranger Things" were tied for Netflix's most popular series in the most countries, leading the Top 10 list in a total of 83 countries after the releases of their first and fourth seasons respectively.
Netflix has yet to announce whether or not "One Piece" will come back for a second season, but the fact that its popularity set a record is as good of a sign as any that a return may now be more likely than not.
One Piece's popularity bodes well for a second season
About a week after "One Piece" Season 1 premiered to Netflix in its entirety, representatives for production company Tomorrow Studios told Variety that plans for Season 2 are already in place. Moving forward, then, they're simply waiting for the green light from Netflix to get to work. "Realistically, hopefully, a year away, if we move very quickly, and that is a possibility," Tomorrow Studios president Becky Clements said. "Somewhere between a year and 18 months, we could be ready for air."
Both "Wednesday" and "Stranger Things" are returning for a second and a fifth season respectively, so there's reason to believe "One Piece" might follow suit based on the fact it beat a record held jointly by these two shows. That said, "One Piece" quickly lost Netflix's number one spot in the US following the release of a special by comic Shane Gillis on September 5. Nevertheless, viewership must already have been considerable to secure that spot in so many countries in the first place, so this may be less of a sign that the popularity of "One Piece" is declining and more of an indication that plenty of Netflix subscribers are fans of Gillis' brand of comedy.
In either case, "One Piece" has already made Netflix history based on a degree of worldwide popularity previously unprecedented for the streaming service.