Netflix landed atop the Nielsen streaming charts in the final full week of May with the debut of its latest dark comedy Sirens.
The series premiered on May 22, racking up 1.4B minutes streamed in just the first few days of release. Per Nielsen, it was the only title to surpass a billion minutes viewed from May 19 to 25. Interesting, Nielsen also says Sirens attracted a largely Millennial and Gen X audience, with adults 35-64 accounting for 57% of its watch time.
Second place went to NCIS, which nabbed the No. 1 spot among acquired titles for the first time in several years, amassing 824M minutes viewed. While this may be the highest it has climbed in quite some time, make no mistake: NCIS is a stalwart on the Nielsen Top 10, having made 265 total appearances. In fact, it is actually the all-time top acquired program by number of appearances on the list, trailed by Grey’s Anatomy.
Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives picked up steam as Season 2 ventured into its second week post-premiere. The series came in at No. 4 with 810M minutes viewed, with the new season accounting for about 86% of viewing.
This interval also just barely captured the Season 2 finale of HBO’s The Last of Us. The series picked up another 707M minutes viewed this week, which includes the same-day viewing on Max for the May 25 finale. However, it’s likely the series will make at least one more appearance on the Top 10 before it trails off as audiences wait for another season.
Nielsen considers The Last of Us an acquired title, since it also airs on HBO and therefore Nielsen’s streaming measurement doesn’t fully capture the viewing for each episode. On streaming alone, Nielsen says TLOU generated 3.6B viewing minutes over the course of Season 2.
Another acquired title that performed quite well during this week was The CW’s All American, thanks to Season 7’s arrival on Netflix. The series shot to No. 8 among acquired titles that week with 559M minutes viewed. Nielsen says 55% of its total watch time this week came from adults 18-49. Black viewers were also major contributors, accounting for 30% of viewing.
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