In a week dominated by three big shows, Squid Game just holds off the challenge of new entry You — we dig deeper
The Nielsens for the week 11-17 October 2021 are dominated by three shows, with the all-conquering Squid Game just about holding off the opposition. Before we dive into the data, here’s what we predicted last week:
It’s hard to call the top 2, but we’ll suggest Maid to make #1 at around 2.5 billion, with Squid Game just under. We’ve a margin of error that reverses the order, and Squid Game just follows its own rules. On My Block should last a few weeks, Bake Off hover and ∫ may pick up some views. Midnight Mass might drift down a few places to around 500 million…
Well, we completely overlooked You season 3, which accrued a huge total in just a few days. We were ballpark on the Squid Game numbers but even with some successes it’s a mixed week. This week we’ve borrowed the Doctor’s TARDIS to sneak ahead and get a taste of next week, but with everything in Flux we didn’t get a consistent view. We did ask a group of Sontaran warriors for their opinions, but they were more interested in hurling insults and marching. Before we give our thoughts, let’s just look at the numbers.
The Nielsen data
As ever we take the published data, add the columns marked ‘*’ and take it from there. It’s a few weeks ago and US only, but still tells us about relative audience penetration of various shows.
| Rank | Streamer | Series | # Episodes | Ep length (mins)* | Total Minutes (Millions) | Episode Watches* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netflix | Squid Game | 9 | 60 | 2,254 | 37,566,667 |
| 2 | Netflix | You | 30 | 45 | 1,938 | 43,066,667 |
| 3 | Netflix | Maid (2021) | 10 | 55 | 1,474 | 26,800,000 |
| 4 | Netflix | The Great British Baking Show | 69 | 75 | 519 | 6,920,000 |
| 5 | Netflix | Midnight Mass | 7 | 65 | 445 | 6,846,154 |
| 6 | Netflix | Dave Chappelle: The Closer | 1 | 72 | 357 | 4,958,333 |
| 7 | Apple TV+ | Ted Lasso | 22 | 30 | 352 | 11,733,333 |
| 8 | Hulu | Only Murders In The Building | 9 | 30 | 317 | 10,566,667 |
| 9 | Netflix | On My Block | 38 | 30 | 311 | 10,366,667 |
| 10 | Netflix | Lucifer | 93 | 50 | 307 | 6,140,000 |
Squid Game just holds the crown for another week
The word just is probably an overstatement as there’s a gap of over 300 million minutes between the two shows. It is, though a drop of over 750 million minutes since last week, so a definite trend. From everything we read the show has a few more weeks near the top of the list, but will there be a new #1 next time?
What else happened?
Biggest surprise to us (apart from overlooking You) is Maid. Most shows appear in the chart and rise on their second week. Maid in fact dropped 500 million. While it’s numbers are still big it seems to have already peaked. Season 3 of You is the big news here, showing a vast amount of pent-up demand. We also wonder what the demographics between Maid and You look like, though imagine Netflix avoids releasing shows with similar audiences at the same time, except for a vast (and expensive) A/B experiment.
Lucifer is limping along, Midnight Mass has dropped off (ahead of Halloween) and there’s little in the way of churn.
What about next week?
If You follows the pattern (which Maid didn’t), it could easily make well over 2 billion minutes (perhaps even over 2.6). We see Squid Game dropping to around 1.5 billion, with Maid perhaps dipping under the billion minutes. This makes You our tip for the top. Whatever does happen, we’ll bring you our take next time.