Netflix Releases Viewership Numbers For 'Bird Box', 'You' And More

Netflix released huge viewership numbers for several of its most recent hits, including Bird Box, Sex Education and You.

The company reported that Bird Box, the horror flick starring Sandra Bullock, was streamed by over 80 million member households in its first four weeks. Netflix stated that it calculated Bird Box’s viewership by counting any account that watched 70 percent or more as a view.

Despite a lackluster run on Lifetime, the Penn Badgley-led You is on track to secure the viewership of 40 million households in its first month. The series only averaged about 1.1 million viewers per episode during its original run. The raunchy, yet heartfelt British series Sex Education is also on track to score 40 million member households.

The streaming giant has been vague about viewership numbers in the past and some argue it is difficult to gauge their legitimacy without transparency surrounding the process.

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

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

Netflix also released viewership data for the Spanish teen drama Elite, which drew in 40 million membership households in four weeks, and the shows Bodyguard, Baby and Protector, which drew in over 10 million households each in their first four weeks.