‘Stranger Things’ Takes Nielsen’s First, Second & Third Best Weekly Streaming Totals Ever; ‘Landman,’ ‘Fallout’ & ‘Pluribus’ Get Boosts As ‘The Closer’ Hits On Netflix
U.S. audiences watched a wide range of streaming fare during the week of Christmas, which was unsurprisingly buoyed by Stranger Thingsper Nielsen‘s latest streaming report.
Three new episodes of the fifth and final season dropped on Christmas Day, helping the series rack up 6.89B minutes viewed from December 22 to 28. This interval’s total marks the third-largest weekly total ever reported, both in the Streaming Top 10 and for the show itself, because the series already held the top two spots as well.
As always, it’s important to note that Nielsen doesn’t separate viewing by season, and while it’s safe to say that Season 5 likely drove a big portion of this viewership, we already know from Netflix’s own reporting that all previous seasons were also attracting sizable audiences during this time. Per Nielsen, Stranger Things generated over 15B viewing minutes in December alone.
Landman also grew week-over-week, managing 1.64B minutes viewed, which put it in second place among streaming titles this week. Interestingly, Nielsen points out that Season 2, specifically, has drawn more female viewers compared to first season (up to 49% versus 46% last season).
Speaking of series with male-skewing audiences, Fallout also showed some growth as the second episode of its sophomore season debuted on Prime Video. The series was up 16% week-over-week, putting up 918M views, 43% of which came from the new episode. That pushed it to No. 3 on the originals chart and No. 7 overall. It’s a strong boost for Falloutand it’s especially promising that the first episode still drove a majority of the audience this week, because it suggests that viewers are still trickling in to the series.
Prime Video changed the release strategy for Season 2, releasing episodes weekly rather than all at once, which has fueled some speculation about its performance. Deadline estimates that Season 2 was down from Season 1 in its opening week, but direct comparisons are difficult for several reasons, which we laid out here. Amazon hasn’t released an internal viewership number yet and likely won’t until all Season 2 episodes are available. Per Nielsen, adults 18-49 represented 60% of its audience, which was the largest share for that age demographic across original titles this interval.
Yet another long-running procedural got a new lease on life after arriving on Netflix. TNT’s cop drama The Closer landed on the streaming behemoth on December 22 and racked up 974M minutes viewed to become the week’s top acquired title.
Elsewhere, Apple TV’s To many put up its best weekly total yet with 483M minutes viewed, up 40% from the week prior, thanks to the release of the season finale. Taylor Swift’s six-part documentary series The End of an Era also got a boost onto the charts thanks to its final episodes, hitting 377M minutes viewed. Nielsen says women 18-49 contributed 40% of watch time.
Naturally, holiday movies occupied a ton of space on the charts this week as well, and Home Alone took the cake with 1B minutes viewed. While the Christmas classic has often been the most-watched holiday film in December, that’s the first time it’s ever crossed the billion-minute threshold.
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