‘Masters of the Air’ Takes Top Spot as the Most-Watched Series in Apple TV+ History

It was destined from the beginning to become one of Apple’s most successful Apple TV+ projects, and now it appears that Masters of the Air has fulfilled that destiny, becoming the most-watched debut in the history of Apple’s streaming service.

After a few years in the making, Apple premiered Masters of the Air on January 26, 2024, and according to an exclusive report in Variety, the epic war miniseries quickly garnered more viewers during that opening weekend than any other show in Apple history, including The Morning Show, Severance, and Hijack, all of which previously set new viewership records of their own.

Apple has not made an exact number of viewers available, making it hard to compare with rival streaming services (which is probably the point), but what’s interesting is that Masters of the Air has seemingly had a halo effect in drawing more viewers to Apple TV+ and encouraging them to stick around and see what else the service has to offer.

According to Variety, viewership rose by 65% on average across the entire Apple TV+ catalog, suggesting that once folks finished watching Masters of the Air, they found other shows that were engaging enough to draw them in.

Remarkably, following the premiere of “Masters of the Air,” viewership across all of Apple TV+ climbed by 65% worldwide when compared to the previous seven-day period. The streamer also maintained double-digit growth across more than 100 territories. Variety

It’s probably not a big surprise that Masters of the Air was such a huge success. After all, it’s not only standing on the shoulders of two previous giants — it’s effectively a sequel to HBO’s Band of Brothers and The Pacific — but it’s also a creation of the same legendary duo as those earlier hits: Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

Masters of the Air also completes a trilogy of sorts for the wartime dramas. Band of Brothers debuted in 2001, following the critically acclaimed World War II film, Saving Private Ryan, which Spielberg and Hanks also produced. It was an “army” series that told the story of a company of soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division in WW2.

The second installment, The Pacific, came along ten years later and, as the name suggests, told a more naval tale, in this case, the US Marine Corps in the Pacific theatre. So, naturally, the next logical step was to take it to the skies with Masters of the Air.

It’s not entirely clear where Spielberg and Hanks were at in developing the series, but Apple managed to secure the rights in 2019, around the time that Apple TV+ launched. It was expected to be a crown jewel in Apple’s original programming, and even more so since it was the first project we heard of that would be produced by Apple Studios — Apple’s own in-house production company.

Before that, most of the shows on Apple TV+ were bankrolled by Apple but produced by entirely independent studios. For example, The Morning Show, one of the service’s hallmark launch shows, was produced under the banner of Echo Films and Hello Sunshine, a pair of studios owned by stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. Many of Apple’s other hit shows have followed a similar pattern, with Apple shopping projects from Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros., Universal Television, and more.

Nevertheless, while it was Masters of the Air that revealed Apple’s in-house production plans, Apple Studios has turned out a few other projects while the hit miniseries was in development, including Spirited, Will Smith’s Emancipation, and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.

Still, Masters of the Air may be eclipsing them all. The nine-episode miniseries focuses on “the men of the Mighty Eighth” — the American “bomber boys” of the Eighth Air Force that were credited with bringing the war to Hitler’s doorstep — with its sixth episode premiering this Friday, February 23, and the finale expected to hit on March 15. It’s already been highly acclaimed by critics, including Variety’s chief TV critic, Aramide Tinubu, who called it “massive, beautifully rendered and a reminder that war is murderous, gruesome and horrifically human.”