Netflix Reveals More Difficult-to-Believe Viewership Data
by EG
Netflix rarely reveals how many people watch its shows, but when it does, you can bet that the numbers are spectacular. For example, the streamer claimed this week that first-month viewership for The Umbrella Academy was 45 million households, which is almost three times as many as the record-setting ratings for the season premiere of Game of Thrones this week. Can that be true? Read on for details.
Via Deadline.
Netflix is continuing to shout about some of its successes, handing out some viewing data for titles including The Umbrella Academy, Triple Frontier, The Highwaymen, its Fyre Festival documentary and the David Attenborough-narrated Our Planet.
In its first-quarter earnings report Tuesday, the streaming company revealed that in the first four weeks on the service, Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s UCP-produced comic book adaptation of Umbrella Academy was watched by 45 million households.
Following the release of numbers for Bird Box last quarter, which was watched by 80 million households in its first month, Netflix today also revealed that The Highwaymen, starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, was watched by more than 40M households in its first month. This was surpassed by action heist movie Triple Frontier, starring Ben Affleck and directed by J.C. Chandor, which hit 52M households in the same time period.
Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, about the controversial music festival, was watched by over 20 million member households in its first month. Netflix projected that nature docu Our Planet, which launched this month, will be viewed by over 25M households in its first month of release.
This comes after Netflix last quarter gave out viewership stats for six series, including You, Sex Education and Elite. The streaming giant opted to volunteer that You and Sex Education had each been seen by more than 40 million households in their initial weeks. Spanish series Elite had been seen by more than 20 million households, the company said.
Netflix considers an episode as “viewed” if at least one episode has been watched at least 70% of the way through. The company zealously guards its data and has steadfastly refused to provide the kinds of ratings updates that its linear competitors do, even those not obligated to advertisers.
Get the rest of the story at Deadline.
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