Nielsen Streaming Top 10: ‘Cobra Kai’ Reaches Nearly 2 Billion Minutes Watched as ‘House of the Dragon’ and ‘Rings of Power’ Slip

Jennifer Maas
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“Cobra Kai” closed in on nearly 2 billion minutes viewed on Netflix in the first full week after its Season 5 launch on Sept. 9, as the streaming audience for Amazon’s “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and HBO’s “House of the Dragon” dipped, according to Nielsen’s newly released streaming rankings for the month-ago period.

From Sept. 12-18, the first four episodes of “The Rings of Power” hit 988 million minutes viewed on Prime Video, while the first five of “House of the Dragon” landed 960 million minutes viewed on HBO Max.

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Meanwhile, “Cobra Kai” — which currently has five seasons and 50 episodes available for streaming on Netflix — was watched for 1.9 million minutes when counting viewership across the entire series, per Nielsen.

During the week prior, the Sept. 5-11 viewing window, “The Rings of Power” was viewed for 1.2 billion minutes, coming in at No. 4 among all measured streaming titles, while “House of the Dragon” was in fifth place with 1 billion minutes watched.

It’s important to keep in mind that “The Rings of Power” is a streaming exclusive on Amazon’s Prime Video, therefore its overall viewership on U.S. TV screens is more accurately represented in Nielsen’s SVOD Top 10 rankings (Nielsen doesn’t measure viewing outside of the country or on other devices) compared to “House of the Dragon,” which airs on HBO’s cable channel in addition to streaming on HBO Max, though the Nielsen streaming lists only account for HBO Max viewership.

Additionally, the two week jump “House of the Dragon” had on “Rings of Power” and the shows’ differing release schedules for the series are of note. New episodes of the “Game of Thrones” prequel (which debuted with one episode Aug. 21) premiere on Sunday evenings versus Amazon’s Friday drops for its “The Lord of the Rings” series (which launched with its first two episodes Sept. 1).

Nielsen’s weekly streaming rankings run Monday-Sunday, meaning new episodes of “The Rings of Power” have only three days’ worth of viewership to be added to the total, while the latest “House of the Dragon” only has a few hours on Sunday evening, following its 9 p.m. ET release, to be counted, though a full week for its previous episodes’ new numbers to be factored in.

Elsewhere on the Nielsen streaming top 10 rankings for Sept. 12-18, the CW network’s canceled drama “In the Dark” came in at No. 4 with 825 million minutes watched on Netflix, while “The Crown” and “Cocomelon,” also on Netflix, were in fifth (796 million) and sixth (785 million), respectively. “Game of Thrones” viewing on HBO Max put it in seventh place with 700 million minutes watched. New Netflix true-crime show “Sins of Our Mother” was at No. 8 (661 million), CBS’ “NCIS” on Netflix on No. 9 (635 million), and “Thor: Love and Thunder” on Disney+ was in 10th (621 million).

See Nielsen’s newest Top 10 streaming rankings below, with overall streaming titles for Sept. 12-18 first, followed by original streaming titles, acquired titles and then films.

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