Netflix’s Lupine is its most popular show in over a year

Netflix’s latest hit show (at least, according to Netflix) is Lupine, a series of robberies in French that attracts an audience number never seen on an original Netflix show since The Witcher in December 2019. Lupine’s appeal is crossing language barriers, too, seeming to attract more viewers than La Casa de Papel. This Spanish program, entitled Money Heist for the English public, has already reigned as Netflix’s largest non-English program.

Netflix said on Tuesday that it projects that Lupine will be supported by more than 70 million accounts in the first four weeks after launch. It reached the second place in the company’s popularity charts in the United States and was in first place in dozens of other countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, Vietnam and the Philippines (and we assume, France too …) .

To put Lupin’s projection into context for 70 million families, La Casa de Papel’s third season was assisted by around 65 million accounts in the first four weeks, the company projected at the time. The Witcher, Netflix’s most watched original series since the company started reporting these statistics, has reached 76 million accounts.

Other preview numbers that Netflix released on Tuesday are listed below.

Netflix had already released the statistics earlier this month for some of its biggest titles at the end of last year. Bridgerton and The Midnight Sky were released in December, when Netflix tends to book its most-watched titles of the year, and they had the biggest audiences of the quarter, at least according to Netflix’s handpicked disclosures.

The Midnight Sky, a science fiction / drama film directed and starring George Clooney, was designed by Netflix to reach 72 million accounts in the first four weeks, and Bridgerton, a soapy drama set in the Regency England of super producer Shonda Rhimes, was designed to reach 63 million accounts.

On Tuesday, Netflix raised its expectations for the audience for We Can Be Heroes, a family movie directed by Robert Rodriquez about the children of superheroes saving their parents (and the planet). After Netflix previously projected that it would reach 44 million accounts in the first four weeks, the company said on Tuesday that it should reach 53 million.

But Netflix was shy about the size of the audience for its final season of The Crown. Netflix said the fourth season of its historic drama series about the British royal family reached a new audience record for the series, and that more than 100 million accounts have watched the franchise since its initial release. (For what it’s worth, Netflix said a year ago that the third season of The Crown was watched by 21 million accounts and that 73 million accounts watched the franchise up to that point.)

For years, Netflix has been notoriously silent about the audience. The creator of House of cards, which put Netflix’s original content efforts on the map, once said the company wouldn’t even share viewing metrics with him. But in the past two years, Netflix has become much more talkative about the popularity of its shows and movies to help recruit talent and generate buzz. Netflix has also added a trend rating to its service, so people can see what are the most popular titles streamed by Netflix in their country on a given day.

Netflix’s popularity numbers need disclaimers. On the one hand, they are not independently verified, nor are they supported by detailed company data. Netflix is ​​in a unique position to choose highlights by hand, and we don’t have a lot of independent data to verify them. Traditional media companies, on the other hand, have their box office performance monitored independently and are at the mercy of Nielsen’s rating as a barometer for TV shows.

Speaking of Nielsen: don’t compare Netflix numbers with metrics like Nielsen ratings or box office numbers. It’s tempting to compare how many people watched a Netflix show with one on regular TV, or estimate how much money a big Netflix movie would have made at the box office. But these metrics are nowhere near comparable because the methods behind them differ enormously.

Last year, Netflix switched to a new view metric. Netflix now counts a title as “watched” if you decide to watch it and let it play for just two minutes. With some programs or movies, you can turn them off before you even hit the main title sequence – and it still counts as a preview.

Following are the latest viewing numbers for Netflix shows. All of the following numbers are previews in the first four weeks of launching a title, except in cases where Netflix projected the full preview before the title actually reached the four week mark (which are indicated).

• Lupine – 70 million projected accounts.
• Holidate, a romantic comedy film with a Christmas theme – 68 million accounts.
• The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two, a sequel to Santa’s adventure film – 61 million accounts.
• We Can Be Heroes, the action movie sons of superheroes – 53 million projected accounts.
• Over the Moon, an animated film about a girl traveling to a mythical land – 43 million accounts.
• Barbarians, a historical series of German action – 37 million accounts.
• Just Another Christmas, Netflix’s first Portuguese holiday movie – 26 million accounts.
• Selena: The Series, a Spanish program about the famous singer – 25 million accounts.
• Sweet Home, a Korean-language horror show – 22 million accounts.
• Alice in Borderland, a Japanese sci-fi thriller series – 18 million accounts.

Previous popularity rankings

So how do these titles compare to those that came before? Netflix’s past viewing statistics for past titles are listed below. Again, all of the following numbers are for the first four weeks of release of the titles using the two-minute metric, except for Netflix projections, where indicated:

• Extraction, an action movie starring Chris Hemsworth – 99 million accounts.
• Bird Box, a post-apocalyptic film starring Sandra Bullock – over 89 million accounts.
• Spenser Confidential, an action comedy film starring Mark Wahlberg – 85 million accounts.
• 6 Underground, a Michael Bay explosion festival starring Ryan Reynolds – 83 million accounts.
• The Old Guard, an action thriller – 78 million accounts.
• Enola Holmes, a period detective film – 76 million projected accounts.
• 1st season of The magician, a fantasy series based on an existing book and video game franchise – 76 million accounts.
• Project Power, a black superhero movie – 75 million accounts.
• Murder Mystery, a comedy film starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston – 73 million accounts.
• The Midnight Sky, a science fiction film directed and starring George Clooney – 72 million projected accounts.
• Kissing Booth 2, a teen rom-com movie – 66 million accounts.
• Season 4 of La Casa de Papel, or Money Heist, a Spanish suspense series with assault – projection for 65 million.
• The Irishman, a period epic about the Mafia, directed by Martin Scorsese – 64 million accounts.
• Tiger King, a viral documentary – 64 million families.
• Triple Frontier, an action / assault film starring Ben Affleck – 63 million accounts.
• Bridgerton, a soapy drama series by producer Shonda Rhimes – 63 million projected accounts.
• The Queen’s Gambit, a limited series about a chess prodigy – 62 million accounts.
• The Wrong Missy, a romantic comedy film starring David Spade and Lauren Lapkus – 59 million accounts.
• The Platform, a Spanish sci-fi horror film – 56 million accounts.
• Season 2 of You, a series of psychological thriller – projection for 54 million accounts, based on the first weeks of airing since its launch on December 26th.
• American Murder: The Family Next Door, a true crime documentary – 52 million projected accounts.
• Seasons 1 and 2 of Cobra Kai, a reboot series for The Karate Kid – 50 million accounts.
• The Perfect Date, a teenage romantic comedy film – 48 million accounts.
• Season 1 of Ratched, a series of psychological thriller – 48 million accounts.
• Umbrella Academy Season 2, a series of superheroes – 43 million accounts.
• Klaus, an Oscar-nominated Christmas animated film – 40 million accounts.
• Lucifer Season 5, a fantasy police series – 38 million accounts.
• The Social Dilemma, a documentary about social media companies – 38 million accounts
• Season 1 of Love Is Blind, a dating competition series – 30 million.
• Season 3 of The Crown, a dramatic historical series – 21 million accounts (and Netflix said 73 million accounts have watched The Crown since the series launched).

Before this year, Netflix counted views differently. Netflix wouldn’t start counting something like “watched” until you reached 70% of the first episode of a series or the total time of a movie. Netflix says the new two-minute limit is fairer for all titles, regardless of their length. But it also means that the new statistics have increased the number of views by about a third compared to the old ones.

These are statistics from previous views according to the old rules. These are numbers that Netflix released (or projected, when indicated) for the first four weeks of release.

• Stranger Things season 3, a retro sci-fi series – 64 million homes.
• Umbrella Academy, a series of superheroes – 45 million families.
• Tall Girl, a teenage rom-com movie – 41 million families.
• Sex Education, a dramatic British teen program – over 40 million families.
• The Highwaymen, a period thriller starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson – over 40 million families.
• Secret Obsession, a mystery film about a young wife with amnesia – 40 million views.
• Our Planet, a BBC documentary series of nature – 33 million families.
• Always Be My Maybe, a comedy film with Ali Wong and Randall Park – 32 million families.
• Unbelievable, a miniseries of true crime about the victims of a serial rapist and detectives chasing him – 32 million accounts.
• Dead to Me, a dramatic series with Christina Applegate – 30 million families.
• Otherhood, a film about a group of mothers visiting their adult children by surprise – 29 million families.
• When They See Us, a hectic limited series by creator Ava DuVernay on the Central Park Five case – 25 million families.
• Bodyguards, a series by BBC-World Productions that previously aired in the UK – 23 million member families.
• FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, a documentary about the Fyre Fest disaster – more than 20 million homes.
• Élite, a series of high school soap operas in Spanish – more than 20 million families.
• Baby, an Italian teen drama series – over 10 million homes.
• The Protector, Netflix’s first original Turkish series – over 10 million households.