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Netflix revealed the viewing figures for 'You' and 'Sex Education' but people don't believe them
18 January 2019, 12:05
Who knew sex-obsessed teens and psychotic stalkers would be so popular?
If you have a Netflix account you're probably hooked on 'You' or 'Sex Education' right now. And if you're not, trust us, you will be. Everyone from Milly Bobby Brown to your neighbour's cousin's friend's dog is watching it, and now the truly staggering viewing results are in.
Netflix has just revealed its quarterly earnings and, of course, the global streaming service has decided to slip in some of their recent successes. You is on track to be watched by 40 million viewers – and no, that's not even an exaggeration – in just four weeks, after it was released on December 26. Oh, so that's why the prices are going up...
Yep, 40 million people have a thing for crazed killers, apparently. It's no surprise that You season 2 is already in the works. The astronomical figure compares to Netflix's other big hitter 'Bird Box', which pulled in a huge 45 million subscribers (and a ridiculous amount of Bird Box memes) within the first week, making it the biggest first week for a Netflix original movie ever.
However, people have their doubts over the latest figures. According to The Hollywood Reporter, You previously averaged just 611,000 when it originally aired on Lifetime last year.
It's also worth adding that Netflix – who don't usually provide figures – has its own way of calculating viewing figures and it doesn't necessarily aline with traditional measuring services like Nielsen ratings in the US or the Broadcasters Audience Research Board (BARD) in the UK.
People are a little sceptical and want Netflix to drop the streaming data and be more specific by what they mean by "viewed".
Until @Netflix allows these numbers to be 3rd party verified, these totals will be taken with a grain of salt. https://t.co/jAEEM5tMIE
— APsychoBabbles (@apsychobabbles) January 17, 2019
They’ve done this with Elite and Sex Education. Impressive figures, but unless they say how many people watched all of the episodes (or for each episode), I’m pretty unconvinced that it nothing more than just easy PR.
— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) January 17, 2019
Hey, you know what sucks? Throwing out these numbers and refusing to release any hard data to support it. https://t.co/JwbshF0fsn
— Vikram Murthi (@fauxbeatpoet) January 17, 2019
Imagine if studios just told you how much a movie made without any sort of oversight or proof. Or if we didn’t have public Twitter follower numbers and could just guesstimate our own. You see why these kind of Netflix-released numbers are silly... https://t.co/qCtdB2iItG
— Brian Tallerico (@Brian_Tallerico) January 17, 2019
according to my personal data, i am on track to be crushed on by more than 40 million people in the first four weeks of 2019, im so flattered https://t.co/z8KmT7hCJD
— Laura Bradley (@lpbradley) January 17, 2019
Netflix has never reported their viewing numbers to press EVER, and now they're just starting to tweet stuff out? guess we'll take your word for it okay https://t.co/7ajw5iFXrX
— Helen Murphy (@helenmurph) January 17, 2019
Can we drill down on these numbers? Like 40 mil watched entire series? First episode? Episode breakdown of viewership during first four weeks? Not sure what to make of this number. Great show btw
— MightyDroid (@mighty_droid) January 18, 2019
According to Netflix, Sex Education is also on track to be watched by 40 million subscribers in its first four weeks after dropping on January 11. A second season of Sex Education hasn't actually been confirmed, but with 40 million people tuning in, we can't possibly imagine why Netflix would want to just stop at one season.
