Netflix’s Bridgerton is big, but George Clooney’s Midnight Sky is bigger

Netflix’s Bridgerton is big, The Midnight Sky is bigger and December was Netflix’s biggest so far – but none of the titles could match the popularity of the service’s year-end megahits that came before.

Both December and the most recent Christmas week were the biggest on Netflix, both for the total hours spent watching and the average hours of viewing per subscriber. December is typically when Netflix reaches some of its biggest audience numbers of the year – with its total subscribers expected to have surpassed the 200 million mark by the end of the year, it’s no surprise that last month was the biggest December ever recorded.

But unlike previous years, when Netflix had a single title dominated in popularity, none of the biggest shows and movies of the past month reached the same levels of popularity as the previous two years.

The Midnight Sky, a science fiction / drama film directed and starring George Clooney, is on its way to be watched by 72 million accounts, Netflix designed for the first four weeks of release. Bridgerton, a soap drama set in the Regency England of super producer Shonda Rhimes, is projected to reach 63 million accounts, and We Can Be Heroes, a family film directed by Robert Rodriquez about the children of superheroes saving their parents (and the planet), should reach 44 million accounts.

But the big hit of December 2019, The Witcher series, beat them all, reaching 76 million accounts in the first four weeks and keeping Netflix’s record for its most popular series.

And the biggest hit of December 2018, Bird Box, surpasses them all – the post-apocalyptic film starring Sandra Bullock was watched by more than 89 million families in its first month, according to Netflix.

For years, Netflix was 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.

In addition to sharing audience statistics for the top titles every three months as part of its earnings report, Netflix sometimes yells at its audience numbers while programs or movies are still launching recently (like now). 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 is 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 reach 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).

• The Midnight Sky – 72 million accounts.
• Bridgerton – 63 million accounts.
• We can be heroes – 44 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.
• Kissing Booth 2, a teenage 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.
• Triple Frontier, an action / assault film starring Ben Affleck – 63 million accounts.
• Tiger King, a viral documentary – 64 million families.
• 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 count as “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 BBC-World Productions series 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.