Disney says Adults has done something most streaming comedies these days don't manage. Its second season is pulling in roughly 40% more viewers than the first, across Hulu in the US and Disney+ everywhere else, measured over the show's first 12 days on air.

The company hasn't released hard subscriber numbers, only the percentage. But both Variety and Deadline, citing the same internal Disney data, report that the growth is real and, uneven. International viewership has doubled outright, up 100% season over season, off what was admittedly a small base to begin with. Deadline's figures suggest the US-only bump sits closer to 30%, roughly tracking the show's critical rebound rather than matching Variety's headline 40% global number. Read together, the two reports point to the same story from slightly different angles: a show that was a modest domestic watch is now finding its audience abroad.

Something else appears to be feeding the numbers. FX dropped a standalone prequel called Marathon Day on July 31, a full month before Season 2 arrived, and Season 1 has apparently been riding its own second wind ever since, up 50% in viewership since that episode landed. It reads like a deliberate bit of scheduling, a way to pull lapsed viewers back in right before the new season needed them.

From 77% to 100% on Rotten Tomatoes

The critical turn has been just as sharp. Adults went from a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes after its first season to a perfect 100% for Season 2, a jump Deadline points out roughly mirrors the show's domestic audience growth. Variety's Alison Herman, who reviewed both seasons, put it bluntly: she didn't much care for the first batch of episodes, calling them strained in their reach for relevance before the cast had settled into itself. Season 2, she wrote, finally has its own momentum, one built off the cast's chemistry rather than any grand statement about their generation.

Created by real-life couple Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw, formerly writers on The Tonight Show, Adults follows five friends, Samir, Billie, Paul Baker, Issa and Anton, holed up together in Samir's childhood home in New York, working through the usual twentysomething mess of jobs, romance and family. Malik Elassal, Lucy Freyer, Jack Innanen, Amita Rao and Owen Thiele lead the cast. Nick Kroll, Sarah Naftalis, Jonathan Krisel, Alicia Van Couvering and Rob Rosell executive produce alongside the creators, with FX Productions behind the show.

Deadline adds one more wrinkle worth flagging. Hulu recently cancelled Not Suitable For Work, a similarly pitched comedy about young New York professionals sharing an apartment, after just one season. According to sources cited by the outlet, Adults has simply performed better while costing considerably less to make, a comparison FX will likely be pointing to the next time it pitches a renewal.

Neither Variety nor Deadline has confirmed whether FX has actually greenlit a third season. Given the trajectory, that call feels less like a question of if than when.