Bridgerton continues its reign: A record-breaking viewership success

"Bridgerton" made an impressive debut. It attracted approximately 45 million viewers right after its release on Netflix. But that's not all. Now, the numbers are even more astounding.

It seems like everyone is watching "Bridgerton." And while we usually avoid saying "everyone," it seems appropriate here, considering the viewership numbers. Since May 16, there has been a lot of buzz online about the third season of the Netflix series, which was split into two parts. Only four episodes were released initially, causing quite a stir because those who have watched know that the last released episode ends at a particularly intense moment. For weeks, intimate scenes have been talked about in this instalment of "Bridgerton." The interest is immense, as shown by the impressive numbers.

As we wrote just a week earlier, Netflix's servers had quite a challenge but held up. No Netflix hit has enjoyed such popularity over the past twelve months. "Bridgerton" amassed 45.1 million viewers within the first four days.

This translated to 165 million hours spent watching the latest production. In March 2023, "The Night Agent" achieved slightly better results (168.7 million hours). At the same time, the interest in Penelope and Colin's story generated demand for the previous "Bridgerton" seasons. The second season was rewatched for 193 million hours.

Now, new numbers have come in. "Bridgerton" continues to lead. Although the initial craze has subsided, the series still generates massive interest. The exact viewership numbers for the week of May 20-26 are now known. The first part was watched by 25.3 million viewers. There is a drop of over 40 percentage points, but the series remains in the top spot for the most-watched productions on the platform.

As a result, "Bridgerton" now has 70 million viewers, and the numbers keep rising. Will the third season break the platform's previous records? Remember that the second season had 93.8 million viewers, while the first season of "The Witcher" had 83 million.

The analysis by Variety is interesting. The journalists converted the new "Bridgerton" numbers into minutes spent in front of screens. The series was watched for 2.3 billion minutes in the first week of display. The first season ranked second, watched for 498 million minutes, and the second season was watched for 434 million minutes. Variety notes that the dominance will continue for several more weeks.

The second part of Penelope and Colin's adventures is yet to come. The following episodes are set to appear on Netflix starting June 13 at 8 p.m. ET. And as Nicola Coughlan, who plays Miss Featherington, points out, viewers will see intimate scenes in the second part, which she was very keen on.

"There’s one scene where I’m very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice. It just felt like the biggest ‘fuck you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body; it was amazingly empowering. I felt beautiful in the moment, and I thought, ‘When I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how fucking hot I looked!" said Nicola Coughlan in one of the interviews.