‘X-Men ’97’ Season 2 Hits a Rough Patch as Ratings Struggle to Take Off

Marvel’s Disney+ output has spent the past couple of years wrestling with a persistent gap between critical acclaim and actual viewership, a pattern that keeps repeating no matter how well-reviewed a particular series turns out to be. That contradiction has become almost predictable at this point, and the studio’s flagship animated revival is proving to be no exception.

‘X-Men ’97’ returned for its second season on July 1 carrying real momentum after its acclaimed debut, with fans and critics alike praising the show’s willingness to tackle mature, emotionally weighty storylines within a nostalgic animation package. Early reviews for the new season have been especially glowing, with Rotten Tomatoes audience comments calling the season’s writing “absolutely phenomenal” and praising its “epic score paired with genuine, high-stakes storytelling.”

That critical goodwill hasn’t translated into measurable audience numbers, though. The first three episodes of Season 2 have failed to make Nielsen’s streaming charts, landing below Netflix’s preschool series ‘Ms. Rachel,’ which claimed the tenth spot with 331 million minutes viewed during the tracking window of June 29 through July 5. That means each of the three new episodes averaged under 110 million minutes viewed, continuing a pattern of ratings struggles that plagued the show’s first season as well.

The show’s Season 1 numbers followed an eerily similar trajectory. Despite Disney publicly touting rising viewership as the season progressed, none of the ten episodes ever managed to crack the Nielsen charts, with the season finale reportedly landing somewhere below Prime Video’s ‘Clarkson’s Farm’ at 219 million minutes even after Disney claimed a 75% viewership increase heading into the finale.

‘X-Men ’97’ isn’t alone in facing this kind of disconnect between quality and viewership on Disney’s platform, either. ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ has gone 0-for-17 on Nielsen charts across two full seasons, and Disney recently canceled ‘Wonder Man’ entirely despite having already announced a second season renewal just months earlier, suggesting a broader pattern of strong reviews failing to translate into the kind of audience numbers that keep shows alive.

That broader trend points toward a specific explanation rather than simple audience fatigue with the superhero genre as a whole. Years of oversaturated content and inconsistent quality across Marvel’s Disney+ slate appear to have eroded viewer trust to the point where even genuinely well-made shows like ‘X-Men ’97’ Season 2 are struggling to pull people back in, regardless of how strong the reviews turn out to be.

Despite the ongoing ratings challenges, Disney doesn’t appear ready to abandon the animated revival just yet. Additional seasons of ‘X-Men ’97,’ including both Season 3 and Season 4, are already in development, with the news announced recently at Comic-Con, suggesting the studio remains confident in the show’s long-term value even without strong Nielsen numbers to back it up.

For a series that’s managed to win over critics and vocal fans while consistently failing to register on industry-standard ratings charts, ‘X-Men ’97’ finds itself in a familiar but frustrating position. Whether that gap between acclaim and measurable audience ever closes may determine just how much longer Marvel keeps investing in the animated corner of its universe.

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