According to the latest figures released by Netflix, more than 76 million member households tuned in to The Witcher in its first four weeks of airing. Season 2 of You came in at second place in the numbers game (only for the fourth quarter), with a 54-million member viewership in the first 4 weeks of release,, while The Crown had 21 million views.
BUT, there’s a catch. And a huge one, at that. Earlier, a view was counted by Netflix as a member account watching at least 70 percent of an episode of a series or 70 percent of a feature film. Now, if a member watches a title for even two minutes, Netflix counts it as a view. As the Netflix report mentions, it is, “long enough to indicate the choice was intentional”.
This new system of assessing viewership gives The Witcher the honour of being the biggest first season ever for a Netflix original.
Under the Netflix Original film category, Michael Bay’s Ryan Reynolds starrer, 6 Underground, clocked in 83 million member households as viewers for its first four weeks of release.