A new analysis of Nielsen's weekly streaming charts over the past year shows that Netflix dominated.
Nielsen introduced weekly lists last year of the most-watched streaming titles, measured by the number of minutes watched per week. The analysis, by Tavish Zausner-Mannes of the firm Evolution Media Capital, found the top 10 original streaming shows with the most-viewed weeks on Nielsen's lists from August 2, 2020 to August 8, 2021 - and they are all on Netflix.
The 10 shows with the most minutes watched in a given week included recent Emmys champion "The Crown" and "Bridgerton," which is Netflix's biggest worldwide series of all time by its own calculations (it counts a view if an account watches at least two minutes of a show or movie).
The data accounted for each show's first full week on Netflix, which doesn't include premiere weekends, save for one: "Cobra Kai" had a big enough debut weekend that that week made the list with just three days of availability.
The data is limited in that Nielsen only measures US viewership and it includes just Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and Prime Video. The way Nielsen measures viewership - total minutes watched - also gives Netflix shows an edge, as new seasons are released all at once while hits on other streaming services, such as Disney's "The Mandalorian" or Prime Video's "The Boys," are released weekly.
Nielsen is also under fire this year by the TV industry for the way it measures viewership, and NBCUniversal has taken steps to try and replace Nielsen with other measurement companies. Still, the data illustrates which streaming shows were popular over the past year and reflects some underlying trends.
Here are the top 10 streaming TV debuts of the past year, according to Nielsen measurements, including how many hours they were watched in their most-viewed week: