‘‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 Surpasses 2 Billion Minutes Viewed on Disney+, but the Number Comes With a Catch

Marvel’s return of Matt Murdock has been one of the more closely watched experiments on Disney+ in recent memory, ever since Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio reunited as Daredevil and Kingpin for the first time since their Netflix run ended. Every new season has arrived with a certain amount of pressure attached, given how beloved the original show remains among fans.

That pressure only grew heading into Season 2, which returned to a noticeably more mature, critically praised version of the story. Reviewers largely responded well to the sharper tone, and Marvel doubled down by confirming a third season built around a full Defenders reunion well before Season 2 even wrapped.

According to new data from Luminate, ‘Daredevil: Born Again‘ Season 2 finished as the most-streamed Disney+ original season in the U.S. for the first half of 2026, racking up 2.3 billion minutes watched between January and June. That places it ahead of other Marvel titles like ‘Wonder Man’ and ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Season 2 on Disney+’s own chart for the period.

The number sounds like a clear win at first glance, but the surrounding context tells a messier story. Earlier Luminate data comparing the first five episodes of each season showed Season 2 down roughly 46 percent in total views and 54 percent in hours watched compared to Season 1’s debut run.

Season 1 pulled in 8.35 million views and 1.44 billion minutes watched over that same early stretch, while Season 2 managed 4.5 million views and 652 million minutes across its first five episodes. Despite better reviews this time around, a meaningful chunk of the original audience simply didn’t return.

‘Daredevil: Born Again’ has also never once landed on Nielsen’s weekly Top 10 original streaming chart, across either of its two seasons. That absence stands out even more when stacked against the wider streaming landscape, where Nielsen’s mid-year report has ‘Stranger Things’ leading all originals at 23.2 billion minutes, followed by ‘The Pitt’ at 21.1 billion and ‘Landman’ at 12.4 billion.

By that measure, Disney+’s best-performing original of the entire first half of the year wouldn’t come close to cracking the top fifteen shows across streaming as a whole. The platform’s chart is also padded by older library titles like ‘The Mandalorian,’ which reportedly pulled in similar minutes watched despite releasing zero new episodes during the period.

None of this appears to be slowing Marvel’s plans. Season 3 is already moving forward with an ambitious ensemble expansion, reportedly bringing back Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Elektra alongside the returning leads, a clear bet that the Defenders name still carries weight even if recent viewership hasn’t matched Season 1’s peak.

Whether “most-streamed Disney+ original” ends up meaning much in the broader streaming conversation is a fair question. For a platform still working to prove its live-action Marvel slate can consistently draw new viewers rather than just its existing fanbase, that title may say more about the competition on Disney+ than about ‘Daredevil’ itself.

Still, for a character who spent years fighting to make it back to screens at all, topping his own platform’s chart is nothing to completely dismiss, even with an asterisk attached. The real test will be whether Season 3’s reunion can turn a modest win into something that finally breaks through more broadly.

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