Ever since it first became an industry-rocking entry in home entertainment, Netflix has kept most of its customer data and viewership details from going public, giving customers glimpses at its most popular programming through its TV and Movies Top 10 round-ups. Now, it appears Ted Sarandos is keep on being slightly more transparent with at least some of those numbers, and now we know just how dominant the historical romance adaptation Bridgerton actually is with streaming crowds. Hell, if that many people were watching something I created, I'd be shouting about it from all the rooftops I could climb.
Taking part in an on-stage interview during Day 1 of Vox Media's annual Code Conference, Ted Sarandos dropped quite a few interesting nuggets of information about Netflix's current situation and the future. And while the new Korean hit Squid Game is currently Netflix's #1 show with a bullet (which Sarandos was also happy to talk about), it will have to keep building up its audience for quite a while to reach the level set by Bridgerton, which has reportedly been watched (in part) by upwards of 82 million people. For a comparable measure, only two non-Super Bowl TV telecasts were watched by more than 82 million people: MAS*H's series finale and Dallas' big "Who Done It" reveal episode.
That's a rather gobsmacking total, even if it doesn't necessarily mean that all 82 million people sat there and watched all eight episodes. The small print allocated to this latest Top 10 reveal is that stat represents the total number of accounts that have watched at least two minutes of the title in its first 28 days on the service. So if 80 million people only watched 3 minutes of Bridgerton's first episode, while the other 2 million binged through it all, it would still be on this list. But that's absolutely not what happened here, as Netflix also revealed a second data set detailing the ten most-watched shows by way of accumulated viewing time.
Unsurprisingly, Bridgerton also topped that list with 625 million minutes being watched during its first 28 days on Netflix. It was followed somewhat closely by the 619 million minutes of Money Heist Season 4 that were streamed, with Stranger Things' third season landing in third place with 582 million minutes. For even more context regarding the romantic drama's dominance, the tenth spot on this list was earned by Ginny & Georgia Season 1, with 381 million minutes watched. So if Bridgerton netted around 344 million more minutes then the service's tenth most watched series (by these parameters), imagine how much it must tower over Netflix's less popular fare.
You can check out the full Top 10 most popular TV shows below, which notes the almost unexpected audience-building power of Sweet Tooth, as well as how popular international shows such as Lupin and Money Heist are.
- 1. Bridgerton Season 1 - 82 million
- 2. Lupin: Part 1 - 76 million
- 3. The Witcher Season 1 - 76 million
- 4. Sex/Life Season 1 - 67 million
- 5. Stranger Things Season 3 - 67 million
- 6. Money Heist Season 4 - 65 million
- 7. Tiger King Season 1 - 64 million
- 8. The Queen's Gambit - 62 million
- 9. Sweet Tooth Season 1 - 60 million
- 10. Emily in Paris Season 1 - 58 million
Will Bridgerton Season 2 be as popular as the debut season without the eye-catching power of Regé-Jean Page in the lead role? Or will Stranger Things' highly anticipated fourth season take the horror/sci-fi series to the top? Or will it be one of the shows that Netflix releases between now and the end of the Fall TV season?
