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Adult Swim, Cartoon Network's Viewership Falls Over 25% in 2021

Entertainment news website Variety published a list on December 30 ranking television networks on the basis of their viewership in 2021. Adult Swim's viewership dropped 25% to 386,000, while Cartoon Network's viewership dropped 26% to 201,000.

Adult Swim ranked at #41 on the list while Cartoon Network ranked at #72. Disney XD's viewership additionally fell 13% to 83,000. The top three networks were CBS with 5,574,000 viewers, NBC with 5,484,000 viewers, and ABC with 4,077,000 viewers.

Cartoon Brew additionally reported that Adult Swim's viewership has dropped by 71.3% since 2014. Cartoon Network's viewership has dropped by 79.3% in the same timeframe.

Variety also ranked the top television networks amongst the 18-49 age demographic. Adult Swim ranked at #20 on the list with 224,000 viewers, seeing a fall of 28%.

WarnerMedia announced a reorganization of its divisions in March 2019 that brought many of its subsidiaries and brands — including Otter Media (Ellation), Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and Boomerang — into a single "Global Kids & Young Adults" unit. The company announced on April 23 that it united the Adult Swim and HBO Max adult animation development teams, and it appointed Suzanna Makkos in an expanded role as the executive vice president of original comedy and adult animation for both brands.

Sources: CartoonBrew (Alex Dudok de Wit), Variety (Michael Schneider)