The “Hannah Montana” 20th anniversary special found its way back home to fans of the Disney Channel original series with some impressive debut viewership.
The special, which dropped March 24 on Disney+ and Hulu, tallied up 6.3 million views through just three days of viewing, according to internal data from Disney.
Additionally, the celebration has driven a nearly 1,000% increase in viewing of the “Hannah Montana” catalog in the past week, with fans streaming more than half a billion hours globally on Disney+ to date.
On social media, owned posts from Disney+ and Disney Channel for the campaign amassed nearly 440 million total impressions and over 30 million engagements, following in the steps of the teaser, which scored over 120 million views in its first 24 hours. Miley Cyrus’ recreation of the iconic Disney Channel wand commercials also scored over 45 million organic views.
The anniversary also boosted Spotify streams for “Hannah Montana” songs, including “This Is the Life,” which saw a 747% boost following the special’s launch, as well as “Best of Both Worlds” with a 607% lift, “Wherever I Go” at 537% and “Ordinary Girl” at 430%.
Airing 20 years to the day after the pilot episode of “Hannah Montana” dropped on Disney Channel in 2006, the special saw Cyrus head back to the sets of the series and look back on her legacy through an in-depth interview with Alex Cooper, as well as cameos with her family and fellow pop stars Selena Gomez and Chappell Roan.
The one-hour special saw Cyrus perform several songs from the show, and it even concluded with a new song she wrote for the anniversary, “Younger You.”
“Miley said that she had a song she thought was very fitting to end the special, and we got to hear it and I was blown away,” special showrunner Ashley Edens told TheWrap. “It just was such a powerful way to end the special, and that lesson of not forgetting who we were as kids and Miley loving and really embracing her life.”
