For the first time since its inception, Netflix has to contend with other OTT streaming content entering into the top 10 Nielsen Rating, which is the current accepted ratings followed by streaming platforms world-wide. As reported earlier, Nielsen had started measuring content from Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video for over a month now and both platforms broke into the top 10 list during the week of August 31st – September 6th.
‘Mulan’ and ‘The Boys’ from Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video respectively, are the content that broke into the aforementioned top 10 list of the most watched content when they both premiered together on September 4th. Both inclusions are noteworthy because they are not regularly available on their platforms.
‘Mulan’ is not actually available on Disney+ catalogues currently – users have to pay a premium of $29.99 to watch the film. Disney hasn’t provided any revenue figures, but according to Nielsen, ‘Mulan’ has accumulated over 525 million minutes of viewing in it’s opening week alone. This comes up to around 4.54 million plays of the 116-minute movie.
‘The Boys’ on the other hand, have opted for a weekly episodic release unlike it’s first season. The anticipation and hype surrounding the show has only increased and this has turned out to be a brilliant move from the showrunners. ‘The Boys’ have accumulated over 891 million views during the early release of it’s first 3 episodes.
Here is the complete list of Nielsen Ratings during the week of August 31st – September 6th along with their previous week’s rankings:
1. (2) Cobra Kai (Netflix), 2.17 billion minutes viewed
2. (1) Lucifer (Netflix), 1.42 billion minutes
3. (N/A) The Boys (Amazon), 891 million minutes
4. (3) The Office (Netflix), 843 million minutes
5. (7) Criminal Minds (Netflix), 675 million minutes
6. (8) Shameless (Netflix), 639 million minutes
7. (N/A) Away (Netflix), 631 million minutes
8. (7) Grey’s Anatomy (Netflix), 616 million minutes
9. (4) The Legend of Korra (Netflix), 541 million minutes
10. (N/A) Mulan (Disney+), 525 million minutes
Sony has expressed their delight in having two of their shows in the top 10 list – ‘Cobra Kai’ and ‘The Boys’. Both shows are number 1 on their respective platforms during the week. Sony has proven that their independence and ability to collaborate with multiple OTT platforms has been one of their true strengths in this business.
Nielsen Ratings measure a show’s or a film’s popularity by measuring the amount of minutes it is watched, not the amount of time the entire content is watched. According to some this is an imperfect system, but for now this is the most accurate version of a compiled list out there. As Nielsen continues with their calculation, we hope more and more content will break through and provide more competition for Netflix.