Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale led digital original demand in the final week of May following its series finale on May 27.

The dystopian drama, available in Canada through Crave, Prime Video and illico+, was 48.7 times more in demand than the average TV show in Canada during the week of May 26 to June 1, according to Parrot Analytics. The Handmaid’s Tale, based on Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel of the same name, ran for six seasons.

Netflix’s Stranger Things followed The Handmaid’s Tale with a demand average of 33.7. On May 31, Netflix released a trailer for the horror series’ fifth and final season and announced that its first volume of episodes will debut on Nov. 26. In anticipation of the show’s final season, audience demand for Stranger Things has ebbed and flowed with the series holding a demand average of 26.5 the week prior.

In the No. 3 spot, Disney+’s Andor has maintained strong demand since the May 13 release of its final three episodes. It saw a slight drop from 40.5 the previous week when it held the No. 2 spot. Prime Video’s Hazbin Hotel, with a demand average of 28.5, and Crave’s Letterkenny, with an average of 26.5, rounded out the top five digital originals.

On the overall TV show chart, HBO’s The Last of Us led with an average of 56. The season two finale of the post-apocalyptic video game adaptation ran on May 25 on Crave in Canada.

PBS children’s series Sesame Street, currently on season 55, landed in the No. 3 spot behind and The Handmaid’s Tale with a demand average of 43. NBC’s Saturday Night Live followed in the No. 4 spot with an average of 41.7.

Top 10 Digital Originals: Canada

1. The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu): 48.7
2. Stranger Things (Netflix): 35.7
3. Andor (Disney+): 35.2
4. Hazbin Hotel (Prime Video): 28.5
5. Letterkenny (Crave): 26.5
6. Black Mirror (Netflix): 26.3
7. Reacher (Prime Video): 24.6
8. Invincible (Prime Video): 23.8
9. Love Island (U.S.) (Peacock): 23.4
10. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (Hulu): 22.3

Top 10 Overall TV Shows: Canada

1. The Last of Us: 56
2. The Handmaid’s Tale: 48.7
3. Sesame Street: 43
4. Saturday Night Live: 41.7
5. Stranger Things: 35.7
6. Andor: 35.2
7. Spongebob Squarepants: 34.3
8. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: 33.2
9. The Voice (U.S.): 33.1
10. My Hero Academia: 31.8

Parrot Analytics calculates its Top 10 lists using Demand Expressions, which are shown by using a metric that demonstrates how much more in-demand the top series are than the average TV show (linear, pay TV, SVOD and AVOD) in Canada. For example, a difference of 1x represents the market average and 10x means a series is 10 times more in demand than the average TV show in this market. Demand is defined as the total audience demand being expressed for a title within a market. Audience demand reflects the desire, engagement and viewership, weighted by importance; thus, a stream or download is a higher expression of demand than a “like” or comment.

Image courtesy of Bell Media