Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Already a Flop — Free YouTube Premiere Draws Shockingly Low Viewership

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The initial results for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy are concerning for Paramount+. The show’s free debut on YouTube didn’t attract much attention, which is a bad sign for getting viewers to subscribe to the streaming service and suggests the show isn’t performing well.

The debut of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy hasn’t gone well, and it’s hard to overlook the poor performance. Paramount+ did something unusual by releasing the first episode for free on YouTube, hoping to attract new viewers and get them to subscribe. However, the initial results indicate this strategy backfired and didn’t generate the expected interest.

A Free Premiere That Failed to Draw a Crowd

The first episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy launched on YouTube with a live premiere event that reached around 1,300 viewers at its peak.

As a Trek fan, I was really excited about Starfleet Academy, but it’s a bit of a cautionary tale. Paramount invested a serious amount – somewhere between $6 and $10 million – into each episode. They decided to launch the premiere on YouTube for free, hoping to build buzz, but the live viewership was surprisingly low – only around 1300 people tuned in. It just goes to show that a big budget doesn’t always guarantee a big audience.

RIP Star Trek

— Nerdrotic (@Nerdrotics) January 15, 2026

Within the first 11 hours after it was released, the episode only received around 16,000 views. This is a surprisingly low number – even a typical fan video usually gets more views, and this episode is from a major franchise produced by a large studio.

These numbers have been confirmed and come directly from the official release of the show on Paramount’s YouTube channel. This wasn’t an accidental leak or an unauthorized upload; it was how the studio intentionally released the content.

Popular free premieres usually get hundreds of thousands of views on their first day, particularly if they’re connected to a well-known, long-running brand. However, Starfleet Academy didn’t manage to attract much attention, even though it was available to watch for free.

Ratio’d: Dislikes Outpace Likes

To make matters worse for Paramount, the few people who actually watched seem to have strongly disliked it, based on early reactions.

When we looked at the episode, it had around 1,300 likes but over 2,000 dislikes. This meant it was getting a lot of negative feedback – a clear sign that most people watching didn’t like it. This is important because free premieres are supposed to create positive buzz and interest, not immediate criticism.

If a new show doesn’t excite its biggest fans, it’s much harder to get people who aren’t already interested to pay to watch more.

The Subscription Conversion Problem

Paramount is trying something new with YouTube: they’re releasing premieres there hoping that if people like what they see, they’ll sign up for a Paramount+ subscription to watch the rest of the show.

The failure of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy highlights a key issue: if people aren’t interested enough to watch something even when it’s free, it’s unlikely they’ll pay to see it.

Few people watched the show live, indicating a lack of initial enthusiasm. Viewership hasn’t increased much since it premiered, suggesting people aren’t recommending it to others. And the number of dislikes outweighs likes, meaning many viewers actively didn’t enjoy it. These factors combined suggest the show didn’t resonate with audiences when it first launched.

This is particularly concerning because Starfleet Academy isn’t a small, isolated project—it’s a major part of one of Paramount’s most important and well-known franchises.

Another Kurtzman “Creative” Misfire?

Paramount is relying on Star Trek to help its streaming service succeed, but shows produced by Alex Kurtzman haven’t performed well consistently. This raises concerns: are people tired of Star Trek after so many new shows? Or are viewers simply not interested in the latest versions, which haven’t appealed to existing fans or attracted new ones?

Regardless of how you look at it, the views on YouTube indicate that Paramount’s predictions might be off. Offering something for free should increase excitement, not reveal a lack of interest.

A Warning Sign Paramount Can’t Ignore

The disappointing launch of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy highlights a bigger issue: when a studio tries to gauge audience interest by making something easily available, they might find there isn’t much interest to begin with.

It’s getting harder for streaming services to attract new subscribers, so Paramount+ needs shows that people actually watch. Early signs suggest their new series, Starfleet Academy, might struggle to gain an audience, even as a free offering, which could be a problem before they even ask people to pay for it.

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2026-01-15 19:58