The Umbrella Academy season 3 has just beaten Stranger Things season 4 in the latest Nielsens — but it was close! We zoom in on the numbers
The King is Dead! Long live The King! The ratings behemoth that is Stranger Things season 4 has just been shaded into second place in the latest Nielsen ratings. Last time, we suggested from a quick look at the Netflix data:
Peaky Blinders seems to have dropped, […] Umbrella Academy might appear as its fans ready themselves for a new season. Of course The Boys will be Top 3 (we think), beyond that we assume at least one of The Lincoln Lawyer, Ozark or First Kill will drop out…
Here’s the data.
The Nielsen ratings for June 20-26
It’s important to note: this is US only and Nielsen amalgamates seasons, Netflix doesn’t. We add the columns marked ‘*’.
| Rank | Streamer | Series | #Episodes | Ep length (mins)* | Total Minutes (Millions) | Episode Watches* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netflix | The Umbrella Academy | 30 | 50 | 2,454 | 49,080,000 |
| 2 | Netflix | Stranger Things | 32 | 75 | 2,326 | 31,013,333 |
| 3 | Disney+ | Obi-Wan Kenobi | 6 | 45 | 860 | 19,111,111 |
| 4 | Amazon | The Boys | 22 | 60 | 712 | 11,866,667 |
| 5 | Netflix | Peaky Blinders | 36 | 60 | 569 | 9,483,333 |
| 6 | Netflix | God’s Favorite Idiot | 8 | 27 | 402 | 14,888,889 |
| 7 | Netflix | Ozark | 44 | 60 | 386 | 6,433,333 |
| 8 | Netflix | The Lincoln Lawyer | 10 | 50 | 383 | 7,660,000 |
| 9 | Amazon | The Summer I Turned Pretty | 7 | 45 | 376 | 8,355,556 |
| 10 | Netflix | Web Of Make Believe: Death, Lies And The Internet | 6 | 53 | 375 | 7,075,472 |
Umbrella Academy only just came in #1
In terms of minutes watched, there are only a few %age points between The Umbrella Academy and Stranger Things, both well over the two billion minutes mark. But — note the vey different episode lengths. By this point we had still to get the final episodes of Stranger Things season 4, so fans could now binge The Umbrella Academy. In terms of our episode watch column, there’s a very big difference in how many people watched how many episodes. Both shows deserve praise.
What else happened?
Quick answer — a lot.
First a decent end of season jump for Obi-Wan Kenobi into third spot, and The Boys still brings in a respectable score but did drop down to fourth. Peaky Blinders is still having a good run, and new series God’s Favorite Idiot joins the chart. Both Ozark and Lincoln Lawyer survive, but (as we expected) First Kill has dropped back. There’s a second entry for Prime Video with new coming of age teen romance The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Our overall sense is this is a well mixed chart, and we do like to see some variety, particular amongst the list of streamers.
What are we looking for next time?
The Netflix data implies the Stranger Things season 4 finale will push it back to #1 over The Umbrella Academy. We’re still looking out for Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Boys and we’d love to see mult-Emmy nominated Only Murders in the Building season 2 hit the chart. Whatever happens, join us next time for our usual sift through the ratings.