Cobra Kai Season 4 Poster [Credit: Netflix]
Viewers spent 2.423 billion minutes between Dec. 27 and Jan. 2 watching the series’ 40 episodes on Netflix, including the 10-episode episode fourth season, which was released Dec. 27.
There was a record amount of viewing of streaming programming during the week, with an unprecedented three programs surpassing the 2 billion minutes watched mark.
The animated musical “Encanto” rose one spot to second with 2.198 billion minutes watched in the first full week it was available on Disney+, with 25% of its audience coming from Latino homes and 40% of its viewership from children aged 2-11.
Viewership was up 59.9% from the 1.375 billion minutes watched the previous week when it was available for three days.
“Don’t Look Up” was the other program to surpass the 2 billion minutes mark, with viewers spending 2.024 billion minutes watching the dark film comedy in its first full week on Netflix. Viewership was up 30.4% from the 1.552 billion minutes watched the previous week when it was available for three days.
“The Witcher” dropped to fourth after back-to-back first-place finishes with 1.827 billion minutes watched of its 16 episodes, 33.2% less than the 2.734 billion minutes watched the previous week, the first full week the fantasy drama’s eight-episode second season was available on Netflix.
Three network series joined “Cobra Kai” as the programs in the latest top 10 that were not in the previous week’s, all returning after one- week absences.
The long-running CBS police procedural “NCIS” was seventh with 730 million minutes watched of its 354 episodes of Netflix. The 2005-20 CBS police procedural “Criminal Minds” was eighth with 636 million minutes watched of its 317 episodes on Netflix.
The classic NBC comedy “Seinfeld” was 10th with 561 million minutes watched of its 166 episodes on Netflix.
Dropping out of the top 10 were Disney+ superhero miniseries “Hawkeye,” the 2003 Christmas film “Elf,” which streams on Hulu, the 1990 film comedy “Home Alone” which streams on Disney+, and the Lucille Ball biographical film “Being The Ricardos,” which streams on Amazon Prime Video.
There were eight Netflix programs in the top 10 and one each from Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, the epic fantasy series, “The Wheel of Time,” ninth with 630 million minutes watched of its eight episodes. Nielsen also announces streaming viewership of Apple TV+ and Hulu programming.
The top 10 consisted of four original streaming series, three series that originally aired on a U.S. broadcast network, two movies and “CoComelon,” the 15-episode 3D animated series of videos of traditional nursery rhymes and original children’s songs that originated on YouTube.
The top 10 programs were “Cobra Kai”; “Encanto”; “Don’t Look Up”; “The Witcher”; “Emily in Paris”; “CoComelon,” “NCIS”; “Criminal Minds”; “The Wheel of Time”; and “Seinfeld.”
The figures reflect only television-set viewing, including such television-connected devices as Roku and Apple TV. Mobile-only viewing is not included in Nielsen’s streaming measurement systems.
