Rege-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor star in Netflix’s “Bridgerton.”
Netflix
Netflix said on Monday that the first season of “Bridgerton” was its most watched TV series ever, with 82 million subscribers tuning in for at least two minutes in its first 28 days on the service.
Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO, released Netflix’s latest list of its most-popular TV shows and movies while speaking at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California. Sarandos showed a slide that included the top 10 in each category.
“Bridgerton,” a period piece about 19th century British royalty produced by Shonda Rhimes, premiered in December. French series “Lupin: Part 1” and season one of “The Witcher,” a fantasy series starring Henry Cavill, tied for second on the list, with 76 million accounts.
Among movies, the action film “Extraction” earned the No. 1 spot. The film about a captured CIA agent was watched by 99 million accounts in the first 28 days, Netflix said.
“Bird Box,” a post-apocalyptic horror film, and the action-comedy “Spenser Confidential” were the second- and third-most popular films, according to the company.
All the films and series on the list were Netflix originals.
Netflix has invested billions of dollars in original content to drive subscriptions, which have topped 200 million globally. The company has pledged in recent years to be more transparent with creators and subscribers in terms of how many people are watching shows and movies, data that’s not tracked by conventional ratings systems such as Nielsen.
Netflix also released data on overall engagement, which measures the total number of hours spent watching a series or film. “Bridgerton” also finished first using that metric among TV shows, followed by “Money Heist: Part 4” and “Stranger Things 3.”
In the film category, “Bird Box” had the highest engagement. “Extraction” and Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino, finished second and third, respectively.
