‘Bluey’ Special Draws a Big Audience for Disney+

The much-discussed special episode of Bluey is also the most watched episode of the show on Disney+.

The April 14 installment of the beloved preschool series, “The Sign,” racked up 10.4 million views worldwide on Disney+ in the week after its release, the streamer says. (The view count is the total viewing time divided by running time.) That’s the biggest tune-in for any Bluey episode — or that of any other Disney Junior show — on Disney+.

With a running time of 28 minutes (about three times a typical episode’s length), the 10.4 million views for “The Sign” translates to about 291.2 million minutes of viewing across the globe. In just the United States, Bluey’s full, 150-episode library draws an average of 1.19 billion minutes of viewing per week, according to Nielsen’s streaming ratings — slightly under 8 million minutes per episode.

The special drew heaps of critical acclaim for its storyline centering on the Heeler family possibly selling their home and moving to another city where dad Bandit would take a new job, as well as a wedding between the Heelers’ Uncle Rad and Frisky.

Coupled with the preceding episode, “Ghostbasket,” the special spawned widespread speculation that Bluey was ending. On April 21, however, the show released a new episode titled “Surprise.”

The long-term future of the show, originally commissioned by Australia’s ABC and the BBC in the U.K., hasn’t been decided. “The BBC has asked for me never to talk about the kids’ voices or the future of Bluey,” creator Joe Brumm told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023.