Nielsen: 4 Services Pass 1B views as Thor is Finally Toppled

Of all things to topple Thor: Love and Thunder from its No 1 spot on Nielsen’s streaming charts, few were likely to be betting on Cobra Kai. However, of broader interest to the entertainment landscape will doubtless be the surge past the 1B minutes of viewing marker for 4 separate services revealed by Nielsen’s early-September data. Blake & Wang P.A entertainment lawyer, Brandon Blake, shares the data.

Karate Kid Takes the Lead

Now in its fifth season, the Netflix reboot of the nostalgia-laced Karate Kid franchise managed to pull in 1.7B viewing minutes across the 50 episodes available to stream. The franchise, which started on YouTube Originals before its shift to Netflix, is still drawing the bulk (35%) of its viewers from the nostalgia-hungry Gen X audience who enjoyed the original films, but has also made strides in the 18-34 demographic, now comprising 20% of viewers.

Cracking 1B

Nor was this the only title on the list to make it over the 1B minutes threshold. Thor: Love and Thunder, now on offer as a no-charge title on Disney+, earned itself 1.5B. This should add nicely to the $760M worldwide gross it brought to the table despite fierce competition from Jurassic World: Dominion and Thor: Love and Thunder. Disney’s Pinocchio, released as bait for their Disney Plus Day promotions, missed the 1B mark, but only just- pulling in 930M minutes and taking the 6th spot on Nielsen’s list.

Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power took the 4th spot and 1.2B viewing minutes. Keeping the fantasy flag flying high, HBO Max’s House of the Dragon settles into 5th with just over 1B minutes. The Game of Thrones prequel series has seen huge traction for HBO, as well as boosting the older series a juicy 30% in viewership, creating an ironic situation where the prequel and original are directly competing with each other as top performers for the platform.

Nielsen, of course, only records views through TV screens in the US, so viewing minutes globally and via other services will have been much higher for all of the Top 5. Overall, it’s an exciting milestone to see on the reinvigorated Nielsen rankings, and speaks to good things for the wider entertainment world.