'Stranger Things' Nearly Doubles 'Walking Dead' Ratings
by EG
Netflix might want to think twice before claiming that new ratings of its programs being compiled by Nielsen are inaccurate. According to some of the first Netflix numbers released by the ratings company, the new season of Stranger Things is easily outperforming the old king of scripted TV, The Walking Dead. Nielsen says that nearly 16 million people watched the season premiere of Stranger Things within 24 hours of its debut. Compare that to the 8.9 million who watched the broadcast of the most recent TWD episode, and it's clear that there's a new ratings leader in town.
As promised, Nielsen is going out with more and more data its mined from Netflix data — including Stranger Things 2.
The company released its latest, and most interesting, SVOD measurement to date on Thursday afternoon — citing an audience of 15.8 million viewers, nearly 11 million of them adults 18-49, watching the sophomore premiere within three days of its launch. (Eat your undead heart out, Walking Dead.) Both of those numbers, by Nielsen standards, are equivalent to the live-plus-three day ratings data you see from traditional TV.
These numbers are not authenticated by Netlfix, which has kept mum on the subject, and don't yet include mobile. But they do paint the most vivid picture yet of who's watching the streamer's biggest pop culture hit. Nielsen also says that 361,000 subscribers streamed the entire nine-episode season within 24 hours of its release. "Our approach is using the exact same framework and methodology that we do for all of television," Brian Fuhrer, senior vp product leadership at Nielsen, recently told THR. "You can put these Netflix and broadcast numbers right next to one another and understand the relationship."
Other compelling data includes the fact that at least 4 million U.S. viewers have already watched every episode of Stranger Things 2.
Get the rest of the numbers at The Hollywood Reporter.
Do you think these new ratings are accurate? Let us know in the comment section below.