The Academy Awards drew a smaller audience this year compared to 2024, despite the Walt Disney Company simulcasting the Oscars on its ABC broadcast network and streaming platform Hulu.

The average audience of the Oscars was 18.07 million, according to preliminary Nielsen data, or 7 percent lower than the 19.49 million who tuned in to the awards ceremony last year.

Finalized data is expected to be released within the coming days, and Disney is likely to incorporate its own first-party data from viewership on Hulu. A live stream of the ceremony was also available on Disney Plus to those who had a bundled subscription with Hulu.

Hulu suffered from a number of technical issues Sunday evening. The first bug logged users out of their accounts, preventing them from accessing any Hulu content until the service was able to deploy a fix.

Moments later, Hulu customers complained that the Oscars telecast ended abruptly, even though the awards for Best Actress and Best Picture had yet to be doled out.

That issue was apparently the byproduct of the Oscars telecast going beyond its scheduled time slot, which is not unusual for live events, especially awards ceremonies. There were no reports of ABC stations or affiliates interrupting the awards ceremony due to scheduling issues.

The telecast on Sunday concluded a run of the Oscars growing its viewership every consecutive year over the past few years. Still, the Academy Awards ceremony tends to pull in stronger numbers than comparable events, including the Grammy Awards and the Emmy Awards.