The renewal gods must be smiling down upon a blockbuster Netflix fantasy series for a change, because One Piece has only gone an accomplished a remarkable feat that puts it in even better stead to have that second season confirmed sooner rather than later.
The long-awaited and hotly-anticipated anime adaptation scored a huge 140 million viewing hours in its first week, and while that wasn’t anywhere close to breaking records for a debuting original, the next seven days have proven to be even more successful.
The streaming service’s latest set of data has revealed that One Piece actually saw an increase in viewership, with the cumulative hours watched rising to 145.7 million. It might not be the first exclusive show to have done it, but it’s still a rare enough thing to happen that it can only serve as wonderful news for the dwindling number of doubters who think Netflix might still do what it’s been known to do so often and pull the plug after a single run.
Buoyed by huge online buzz, stellar reviews from critics and audiences alike, as well as monstrous data, it’s near enough impossible to imagine that Monkey D. Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats won’t be back on our screens. The producers are confident enough that they’ve got scripts ready to go just in case, so should the strikes end sooner rather than later, then we could realistically end up with season 2 of One Piece within the next 18 months or so.