Andor is Peak Star Wars We Had in Years, But Nobody's Watching
By now, it is obvious that nobody is watching Andor. Well, "nobody" might be a slight exaggeration, but clearly only a few people are interested in this show.
Disney does not release official numbers and probably never will, but the tracking firm Parrot Analytics says that the "demand" they measure for Andor using their various metrics is "overwhelmingly lower" than for all other Disney Plus Star Wars live-action series, including both seasons of The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi and even The Book of Boba Fett.
Andor's dedicated subreddit has little more than 3.5 thousands of subscribers (by comparison, the one for The Book of Boba Fett has over 64 thousands, and that show was received quite poorly). However you look at it, there is just no interest in Andor.
And that's a shame, given that the show is actually pretty good.
Of all the "more grounded", "grittier" Star Wars series, which are supposed to deal with relatively normal people making their way through the universe – as opposed to Force-users and their epic stories – Andor stays the most true to the premise. It is all about creating the groundwork for the Rebellion in a story that is fairly tightly plotted, with neither "foe of the week" episodical-ness, nor excessive amounts of cameos, Easter eggs, nostalgia baits, and tie-ins for the sake of tie-ins. Oh, and in the true Star Wars fashion it retells a familiar story in a fantastic setting (if The Mandalorian is a western in space, the first half of Andor is a heist movie in space). Andor's storytelling, writing are not uncommonly praised.
So, why such lack of interest?
First, making a personal spin-off for a character from Rogue One who wasn't that popular in the first place might have been a bad idea to start with. The theory that Disney's Star Wars offerings are primary selling based on nostalgia of the fans might be true. Rogue One was accepted by the fanbase because of its close connection to A New Hope, but did not generate any of that sales-driving nostalgia on its own. Second, the market for "grittier" Star Wars series might just be oversaturated by now, right after The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.
In the short term it does not matter how Andor performs. A second season is already committed to, with another 12 episodes, said to lead into the events of Rogue One. What its failure means for the franchise in the long term remains to be seen.