‘Ransom Canyon’ Season 2 Opening Week Viewership Down Over 40% from Season 1

Ransom Canyon is officially back on our screens, but the neo-Western romance has hit a rather bumpy trail in its sophomore outing. Following a solid breakout first season in early 2025, the highly anticipated second season has debuted to a noticeably softer reception on the Netflix top 10 charts. Despite a passionate fanbase in English-speaking territories, the early numbers reveal a steep 43% drop in global views compared to its initial launch, making the sprawling drama the latest victim of a growing and highly scrutinized trend for returning Netflix Originals.

The season 2 drop shouldn’t be entirely surprising given that pretty much every show over the past few years has seen drops of some description, although the severity differs from show to show and often gives a good indication as to whether it’ll get renewed or not. FUBAR season 2 is a prime example with a season-to-season drop of over 76%, meaning it quickly got canceled. 

Of course, all this came to the spotlight via Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw recently, who reported that Netflix didn’t have any good answers to the problem, but the company has since been more defensive, claiming that it’s something that happens industry-wide and that the drops have improved in recent years. We did a massive deep-dive into the issue a few weeks back, which goes some way of explaining the drops and would recommend reading: 

Here’s a look at the drops over the past few years for season 2 outings, and then let’s take a look at how Ransom Canyon S2 compares. 

As a reminder on the performance of season 1: it spent 4 weeks in the global top 10s, picking up 183.6M viewing hours, equating to 23.3M views. 

Here’s how that breaks down:

One extra caveat before diving in: Ransom Canyon season 2 notably cut its episode count from 8 to 6, therefore shortening the runtime. Therefore, it’s easier for it to pick up views because of how views are calculated. 

So what did Ransom Canyon S2 debut with? It pulled in 25.5M viewing hours, which equates to 4.1M views. That’s a 54% drop in viewing hours and a 43% drop in views. 

Looking at the graphs above, the 43% drop in views places it in potentially rough seas in getting renewed, with The Recruit season 2 being a similar comparison. We’ll have to wait to see how things evolve. We criticized the lack of publicity for the series, with it almost entirely reliant on its SEO blog TUDUM going into season 2, and while there were some post-launch interviews, fingers crossed they start alerting people to the show having returned. 

FlixPatrol Gives More Insights on Daily Performance Thus Far

Data from FlixPatrol paints a somewhat mixed picture. If you were hoping the sprawling neo-Western romance would come out of the gate swinging harder than its debut, you might want to temper your expectations. Looking at the raw point totals for its first four days on the platform, season 2 is undeniably off to a softer start. As of the time of publishing, it’s sitting fifth on the global chart behind Elite Force at #1, My Daughter’s Father as #2, I Will Find You at #3, and Agent Kim Reactivated at #4.

When comparing the first four days of season 2 against season 1, the point deficit is stark. On day one, the sophomore season pulled in just 222 FlixPatrol points globally, compared to a much more robust 358 points for season 1. That gap hasn’t closed as the weekend progressed, either. By day four, season 2 was sitting at 413 points—well behind the 566 points season 1 was commanding at the exact same point in its lifecycle. While a slight decay between seasons is totally normal for most Netflix Originals, a 25-to-30% drop in daily global reach points is definitely a softer launch than executives were likely hoping for.

So, where is the show actually working? Unsurprisingly, the series is still playing like gangbusters in the Anglosphere. Ransom Canyon managed to snatch the #1 spot in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada over the weekend, though it has since slipped to #2 in the US and Canada. It’s also finding a very strong, loyal audience in Northern Europe and the Nordics. Viewers in Denmark have kept it locked at #1 for three days straight, while countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia are holding strong at the #2 spot. If you look purely at English-speaking and Northern European territories, the show looks like a bonafide smash.

World map performance for Ransom Canyon Season 2 so far – Picture Credit: FlixPatrol

However, you don’t have to look hard at the global heat map to see where Ransom Canyon is bleeding points. The series is struggling to make a major dent in Latin America. In countries like Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Venezuela, the show took several days just to crack the top 10 at all, and it’s currently languishing in the bottom half of those lists. Furthermore, the show is virtually non-existent across the major Asian markets, which is heavily pulling down its global average.

Here’s the points tally compared between season 1 and 2 thus far:

What do you think – should Ransom Canyon season 3 be a go based on these early numbers? Let us know in the comments below.