Virgin River holds onto the #1 in the latest Nielsen numbers, but is that the only story? Let’s dig a little deeper…
The Nielsens for July 25-31 make for an interesting read — while Virgin River held onto the top of the table (beating Stranger Things), there’s a lot of change lower down. Before we bring you the numbers, here’s what we said last week:
…an unchanged top 2 of Virgin River and Stranger Things with Resident Evil perhaps dropping. We’ll keep an eye out for The Boys and Only Murders in the Building, and just wonder if Prime Video’s new series Paper Girls might appear…
Here’s what happened.
The Nielsens for Original Streaming in the US July 25-31
As ever we add the columns marked ‘*’.
| Rank | Streamer | Series | #Episodes | Ep length (mins)* | Total Minutes (Millions) | Episode Watches* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netflix | Virgin River | 42 | 45 | 2,397 | 53,266,667 |
| 2 | Netflix | Stranger Things | 34 | 75 | 1,835 | 24,466,667 |
| 3 | Netflix | Keep Breathing | 6 | 35 | 730 | 20,857,143 |
| 4 | Netflix | The Most Hated Man On The Internet | 3 | 55 | 546 | 9,927,273 |
| 5 | Netflix | Blown Away | 30 | 30 | 443 | 14,766,667 |
| 6 | Prime Video | The Terminal List | 8 | 60 | 427 | 7,116,667 |
| 7 | Netflix | Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous | 49 | 60 | 406 | 6,766,667 |
| 8 | Netflix | The Umbrella Academy | 30 | 50 | 399 | 7,980,000 |
| 9 | Netflix | Car Masters: Rust To Riches | 32 | 60 | 397 | 11,342,857 |
| 10 | Hulu | Only Murders In The Building | 16 | 60 | 391 | 11,171,429 |
Virgin River holds onto the top spot over Stranger Things
Both Virgin River and Stranger Things attracted well over 1.5 billion minutes of viewing, and there’s a decent gap between first and second. Both shows have dropped back from last week — around 10% for Virgin River on its second week, and slightly more for Stranger Things, which has been at or near the top for a lot longer.
What else happened?
New at #3 is limited series Keep Breathing, and this despite some poor reviews (Rotten Tomatoes has a 53% critic score and a dismal 36% audience score), demonstrating the disconnect between popularity and opinion of those [sic!] who make their thoughts known. There are plenty of other new titles in the list, and many CultBox favourites have dropped out. The Umbrella Academy survives, and Only Murders in the Building is still in the chart.
What do we expect next time?
The Netflix data for the start of August shows (as already reported) The Sandman dominating the charts, and this will be the first week of several. We suspect a top 2 of The Sandman and Virgin River, with Stranger Things dropping back. The data suggest Keep Breathing is still popular and we’re also keeping an eye on Extraordinary Attorney Woo. There’s a few weeks before the numbers catch up with the finale, so we’re also looking out for Only Murders in the Building.
We’ll share our thoughts next time.