The season two debut of Bridgerton carried the show to a dominant No. 1 in the streaming charts for March 21-27.
The Netflix/Shondaland series, whose second season premiered March 25, racked up 2.55 billion minutes of viewing time for the week (inclusive of both seasons; Nielsen’s streaming measurement counts all episodes of a series). That was more than double the amount of time viewers spent with the anything else on the platforms Nielsen measures: Netflix’s movie The Adam Project finished second overall with 1.2 billion minutes.
Bridgerton’s breakout performance is no surprise: Netflix’s internal data had already shown that season two had the best opening weekend of any English-language series on the platform. (Nielsen’s figures lag a few weeks behind.) The show also likely helped Netflix nudge up its share of total TV use in March.
Among original series, Netflix’s self-explanatory game show Is It Cake? finished second to Bridgerton with 1.19 billion minutes of watch time in its first full week. The show, which premiered March 18, grew by almost 2 1/2 times over its performance the previous week. The prior week’s top show, The Last Kingdom, fell to third among originals with 976 million minutes of viewing time.
Human Resources, a spinoff of Netflix’s animated series Big Mouth, debuted in ninth place among originals with 270 million minutes of viewing.
Nielsen’s streaming ratings cover viewing on TV sets only and don’t include minutes watched on computers or mobile devices. The ratings only measure U.S. audiences, not those in other countries, and currently only include Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix and Prime Video.
Nielsen’s top streaming series for March 21-27 are below.
Original Series
1. Bridgerton (Netflix), 2.55 billion minutes viewed
2. Is It Cake? (Netflix), 1.19 billion
3. The Last Kingdom (Netflix), 976 million
4. Inventing Anna (Netflix), 558 million
5. Bad Vegan (Netflix), 429 million
6. Pieces of Her (Netflix), 365 million
7. Ozark (Netflix), 312 million
8. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video), 285 million
9. Human Resources (Netflix), 270 million
10. Love Is Blind (Netflix), 248 million
Acquired Series
1. NCIS (Netflix), 752 million minutes
2. Cocomelon (Netflix), 645 million
3. Criminal Minds (Netflix), 635 million
4. Good Girls (Netflix), 554 million
5. Call the Midwife (Netflix), 415 million
6. Grey’s Anatomy (Netflix), 414 million
7. Seinfeld (Netflix), 377 million
8. Gilmore Girls (Netflix), 349 million
9. Supernatural (Netflix), 343 million
10. Bluey (Disney+), 316 million
Source: Hollywood
