‘Bridgerton’ Leapfrogs ‘Cobra Kai’ To Retake U.S. Streaming Lead

Bridgerton jumped back in front of Cobra Kai to retake the top spot in Nielsen’s U.S. streaming rankings for the week of January 11 to 17, with sci-fi movie Outside the Wire helping Netflix sweep the top 10.

The Shonda Rhimes-produced period romance drew just shy of 1.4 billion total minutes of viewing, outpacing Cobra Kai, which had 1 billion. Netflix has crowned Bridgerton its most-watched original ever, with 82 million global subscriber households sampling it in its first month on the service.

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer came in third for the week, with 867 minutes of viewing despite the true-crime series having just four episodes. Outside the Wire, a sci-fi movie starring Anthony Mackie, drew 556 minutes of viewing, good for ninth place.

Netflix took up all spots on the top 10, ending a run of weeks where Disney broke through with weekly wins for Pixar film Soul and Star Wars spinoff series The Mandalorian.

Nielsen measures only viewing in the U.S. via a TV set, which leaves out mobile and international, both significant sources of streaming. It also tracks only Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney+, leaving out HBO Max and Peacock as of now.

On the expanded Nielsen ranking of all-originals, which leaves out acquired mainstays like Criminal Minds and Grey’s Anatomy, Disney+ had two shows in the top 10: WandaVision and The Mandalorian.

WandaVision, which is in its debut season as Marvel’s first Disney+ original, collected 434 million minutes of viewing. Its running time, about 30 minutes an episode, doesn’t help its overall viewing tally in the Nielsen format. (Netflix, by comparison, counts a “view” as any viewing of any title for at least two minutes.) In addition, WandaVision is not binge-released. It had two episodes on the platform, an unusually generous allotment by Disney+ standards, but those first two are the only ones counted in the mid-January Nielsen snapshot.

The Mandalorian, whose second season ended in December, racked up 339 million minutes of viewing for its 16 total episodes, Nielsen said.

On the movie-list, Amazon Prime Video’s One Night in Miami cracked the top 10, finishing No. 5 with 188 million minutes of viewing.

Here is the full main ranking of streaming titles, including originals, acquired shows and movies, with number of episodes and number of total minutes of viewing:

Bridgerton, 8 episodes, 1.4B minutes
Cobra Kai, 30 episodes, 1B min.
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer, 4 eps., 867M min.
Criminal Minds, 285 eps., 853M min.
Grey’s Anatomy, 366 eps., 711M min.
Mariposa de Barrio, 91 eps., 621M min.
Supernatural, 328 eps., 591M min.
Schitt’s Creek, 80 eps., 577M min.
Outside the Wire, movie, 556M min.
L.A.’s Finest, 13 eps., 546M min.