Netflix has given us a lot of great originals over the years, but what is the most watched Netflix original series? Well, it seems that its latest period drama, Bridgerton, has become the company’s most popular original series yet. In a report from The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix claims that the Julia Quinn novel adaptation was viewed by 82 million member households within 28 days of its December 25th release date.
Interestingly enough, Netflix actually underestimated the popularity of the show and pegged viewer numbers to reach around just 63 million member accounts. With its current numbers, Bridgerton has taken over The Witcher which previously held the record of being the most-watched show on the platform with a record of 76 million. The company’s prediction was based on how viewership numbers would fall after a couple of weeks – something that did not happen with Bridgerton.
But The Hollywood Reporter also mentions that comparing Netflix’s current subscriber count at the time of The Witcher and Bridgerton‘s release would show that the former held a higher percentage of viewers watching. At the time of Bridgerton‘s release, Netflix had about 203 million subscribers, 40.3% of whom watched the show. Comparing this to the time of The Witcher‘s release last December of 2019, Netflix had about 169 million subscribers and reported that 45% of its members watched the show. Even with these facts, Bridgerton still places in the top 3 Netflix shows alongside The Witcher and season three of Stranger Things.
The most-watched Netflix original, however, is the Chris Hemsworth-led film, Extraction, with a record of 99 million accounts watching within 28 days of its release.
It’s important to note, though, that Netflix did recently change its way of counting views. Currently, subscribers need only watch 2 minutes of a show for Netflix to count them as a view. The previous metric required subscribers to watch at least 70% of one episode or film to be counted.
The success of Bridgerton has already led it to be renewed for a second season and is set to start production in the spring.