Virgin River knocks Stranger Things off the top of the latest Nielsens, but what else happened?
We’ve just processed the Nielsens for July 18-24, and, as we’d thought, Virgin River knocks long-standing leader Stranger Things into second place. Last week we suggested:
…a good week for season 4 of Virgin River, as Nielsen add all seasons together, it looks like a competition between that and Stranger Things for the top spot. Terminal List and Resident Evil should have a good week, and we’ll keep an eye on our regulars (The Boys, Ms Marvel, Only Murders in the Building).
We expect Ozark and Peaky Blinders to drift out…
As you’ll see from the numbers, we weren’t a long way off.
The Nielsen numbers for July 18-24
As ever, this is US data and we add columns marked ‘*’. We get asked why the Nielsens matter in the UK — in our view while the TV market is global, with the big players HQ-ed in the US, these numbers drive behaviour. Here they are:
| Rank | Streamer | Series | #Episodes | Ep length (mins)* | Total Minutes (Millions) | Episode Watches* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netflix | Virgin River | 42 | 45 | 2,638 | 58,622,222 |
| 2 | Netflix | Stranger Things | 34 | 75 | 2,277 | 30,360,000 |
| 3 | Netflix | Resident Evil (2022) | 8 | 50 | 772 | 15,440,000 |
| 4 | Netflix | The Umbrella Academy | 30 | 50 | 553 | 11,060,000 |
| 5 | Prime Video | The Boys | 24 | 60 | 532 | 8,866,667 |
| 6 | Prime Video | The Terminal List | 8 | 60 | 532 | 8,866,667 |
| 7 | Netflix | Alba (2021) | 13 | 50 | 416 | 8,320,000 |
| 8 | Hulu | Only Murders In The Building | 15 | 35 | 372 | 10,628,571 |
| 9 | Netflix | Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous | 49 | 60 | 361 | 15,041,667 |
| 10 | Netflix | Blown Away | 30 | 60 | 284 | 12,347,826 |
Virgin River knocks Stranger Things off the top spot
With a combined audience approaching five billion minutes, the two top titles dominate the viewing. We knew this was likely and also remember several times Virgin River led the way with season 3. We understand season 5 is already filming, so same again next year? As to Stranger Things, it’s still a very respectable total, and three times that off the third place.
What else happened?
As we bid farewell to Ozark, Peaky Blinders and Ms Marvel, this left space for some new titles, such as Alba, and a new season of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous. There was some shuffling between The Boys and The Umbrella Academy and we were disappointed to see the fall in The Terminal List.
Only Murders in the Building is holding the course in the lower end of the table and Resident Evil looks strong.
What are we looking for next time?
The Netflix data for July 25 – 31 suggests 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. We’ll let you know!