On the face of it, the “Deadpool & Wolverine” trailer hitting such a milestone right from the jump would seem to be worthy of celebration (for Disney stockholders, at least), right? Well, maybe it’s worth exploring exactly how Marvel arrived at its stated figures.
So, about that record. According to the analytics-focused website Statista, the previous record-holder for the most amount of trailer views within 24 hours belonged to the initial “Spider-Man: No Way Home” teaser back in 2021, with 355.5 million views. Prior to that, the title belonged to the “Avengers: Endgame” teaser released in 2018 (289 million). By any standard metric, 365 million is definitely higher than those other numbers. (See, who needs a fancy accounting degree?) But when you actually head on over to the YouTube link for the “Deadpool & Wolverine” trailer posted by the official Marvel Studios account, well, you’ll notice that the 16.7 million views (as of publishing) don’t even come close to what Marvel’s claiming. That’s because the studio is likely adding up views from every single account, from YouTube trailers (posted by each official affiliate, including Ryan Reynolds’ personal channel) on every platform (from Instagram to TikTok to, uh, wherever else kids these days are consumin’ their content). But what actually counts as a “view” and how much of this are repeat viewings? Since Marvel isn’t releasing any actual details about how they arrived at this figure, we’ll never know!
So is all this an example of putting a thumb on the scale a bit? Probably, but that’s just how the game is played these days. So, ultimately, “Deadpool & Wolverine” has broken a pretty substantial record. What that actually means is up to you.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” slices into theaters July 26, 2024.