Why Arrow Just Got Cancelled

6. The Ratings Have Been In Decline For Years

The Arrowverse is a strong brand as a whole thing, but it's perhaps greater than the sum of its parts. They all perform well enough for The CW, but none have maintained particularly huge ratings, but Arrow is a victim of how long it's been running.

The series averaged over 3 million viewers for its first three seasons, but has seen a considerable drop-off since then: it slipped to below 2 million in Season 6, and this year is averaging just 1.2m. That's still enough to make it The CW's fourth biggest show overall - behind The Flash, Supernatural, and Supergirl - and it's third in terms of the all-important 18-49 demographic on average this year, but it's just had a massive drop there as well. The show has been off for just under a month, but its return this week opened with just 0.2m in the 18-49 demo, a drop-off of almost 50% from the previous instalment.

It's still better than some of the other Arrowverse shows, and generally a solid performer for The CW as a whole, but it's also far older, which means less incentive to keep on making it when the ratings are likely to keep going down and the network is looking to its longer-term future. It's had well over 100 episodes, opening it up for bigger syndication deals, and this gives it a chance to go out before they're simply flogging a dead horse.