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Despite the Henry Cavill Backlash, The Witcher Season 4’s Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score Has Risen

The Witcher Season 4’s Tomatometer rose from 53% at launch to 61% in a later snapshot, while the Popcornmeter stood at 19%. The available figures show two points in time—not a continuous trend or proof that Cavill backlash caused the change.
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The Witcher Season 4’s Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer rose from 53% at launch to 61% in the latest snapshot available here—but the numbers establish a change between two dates, not a continuous upward trend. The current audience score is much lower: 19% on the Popcornmeter. Those figures represent different groups and should not be read as the same verdict.

What are The Witcher Season 4’s Rotten Tomatoes scores?

Rotten Tomatoes’ Season 4 page displayed a 61% Tomatometer from 28 critic reviews and a 19% Popcornmeter from 2,500+ ratings when accessed on October 8, 2026. The page lists October 30, 2025, as the season’s release date. These are dated snapshots of a live page, so its scores and counts may change.

The difference between the two percentages is substantial, but it is not a direct critic-versus-audience average-rating comparison. Both meters show the share of submitted reviews or ratings that are positive; they do not report an average score. Rotten Tomatoes explains its metrics on its About page, and the current figures appear on the Season 4 page.

Did the critic score rise after launch?

Yes, between the two documented snapshots. On October 31, 2025, GamesRadar reported that the Tomatometer stood at 53% from 17 reviews around the season’s launch. By October 8, 2026, Rotten Tomatoes displayed 61% from 28 reviews. That is an increase of eight percentage points alongside an increase in the number of reviews included.

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This comparison does not show when the score changed, whether it rose steadily, or how each added review affected the total. Nor does the available launch report give a comparable launch-day Popcornmeter score. The claim that is supported is specifically that the critic percentage was higher in the later snapshot—not that both Rotten Tomatoes scores continued to rise. See GamesRadar’s October 31, 2025 report for the launch figure.

How does Season 4 compare with earlier seasons?

On Rotten Tomatoes’ series page, the season Tomatometer scores are:

Season Tomatometer
Season 1 68%
Season 2 95%
Season 3 79%
Season 4 61%

As of October 8, 2026, Season 4’s 61% was below each of the first three seasons’ scores. The same Rotten Tomatoes series page displayed a 75% average Tomatometer and a 46% average Popcornmeter for the series. These are Rotten Tomatoes figures, not measures from another review aggregator. The season comparisons are available on the series page.

What do the Tomatometer and Popcornmeter measure?

Tomatometer

The Tomatometer is the percentage of professional critic reviews Rotten Tomatoes classifies as positive. Season 4’s displayed 61% is based on 28 critic reviews in the October 8, 2026 snapshot. It does not mean critics awarded the season an average score of 61 out of 100.

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Popcornmeter

The Popcornmeter represents the percentage of fans rating a title positively. Season 4’s displayed 19% came with 2,500+ ratings in the same snapshot. It is not an average fan rating of 19 out of 100, and its audience submissions are not interchangeable with professional critic reviews.

Did Henry Cavill’s departure cause the score change?

The cast change is confirmed; a causal link between the backlash and the score movement is not. Cavill announced that he would leave the role of Geralt of Rivia after Season 3, with Liam Hemsworth taking over from Season 4, as Rotten Tomatoes reported in 2022. Netflix’s Season 4 guide identifies Hemsworth as Geralt and describes the season’s eight episodes and separated paths for Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri.

Comments on Rotten Tomatoes’ Season 4 page show sharply different audience reactions: some reviewers object to the recasting or the show, while others defend Hemsworth or accuse critics of review bombing. Those individual comments demonstrate disagreement, not how common a view is or what caused a score to move. The change from 53% to 61% also coincides with the addition of reviews, but the available figures do not identify which reviews changed the total or why.

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How does Metacritic’s score differ?

Metacritic is a separate aggregator with its own scoring system. Its Season 4 page displayed a 59 Metascore from 15 critic reviews and a 1.8 user score from 322 user ratings when accessed on October 8, 2026. Neither number is a Rotten Tomatoes percentage, and neither should be combined with Rotten Tomatoes’ review or rating counts. Metacritic also reproduces this line from Kelly Lawler’s USA Today review, dated October 30, 2025: “’Witcher’ does not fall apart without Cavill. It does not necessarily rise from the ashes of his departure into a new and better series, either.” The figures and excerpt are on Metacritic’s Season 4 page.

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