‘Outer Banks’ and ‘Virgin River’ Help Netflix Dominate Latest Nielsen Ratings Report

Tyler Hersko
·2 min read

“Outer Banks” was one of 2020’s most popular additions to TV land and the show’s success appears to be holding strong following the recent premiere of its sophomore season.

Nielsen’s latest report on the most popular streaming television shows stated that “Outer Banks,” which premiered its second season on Netflix in July, was viewed for 1,423 million minutes from July 26 to August 1. The show had nearly twice the viewership of the second most-viewed show of the week in Nielsen’s report: Netflix’s “Virgin River,” which has topped Nielsen’s streaming reports for several weeks, was viewed for 782 million minutes.

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Netflix dominated Nielsen’s latest streaming report; eight of the report’s 10 titles were Netflix titles, including the top seven on the list. Amazon’s consistently popular “Bosch” came in eighth with 187 million minutes viewed, while Disney+’s “Loki” — which topped most of Nielsen’s streaming reports while new episodes were rolling out — came in ninth with 180 million minutes viewed.

Nielsen’s data is only based on United States audiences using TV sets and only covers Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney+. The company releases its streaming data reports on a roughly one-month delay due to an arrangement with the aforementioned streaming services. The entertainment industry’s major streamers do not regularly release their own verifiable viewership data.

“Outer Banks” Season 2 received mostly positive reviews from critics, including IndieWire’s Steve Greene, who noted that the show’s surprising narrative helped it overcome several confusing detours in his grade B- review.

“As this year’s ‘Panic’ proved, it’s very easy for a show with that framework to sour quickly — there’s a deceptive degree of difficulty in staging a soapy adventure like this,” Greene said in his review. “The relative success of this show, pitched in a way that staves off its more destructive impulses, is a testament to how well everyone involved manages to play along. Maybe it’s a show that’s still trying too hard at points, but it’s easy to imagine that fans of ‘Outer Banks’ watching Season 2 will find much of what they’re searching for.”

1. Outer Banks (Netflix) – 1,423 million minutes

2. Virgin River (Netflix) – 782 million minutes

3. Never Have I Ever (Netflix) – 328 million minutes

4. Love Is Blind (Netflix) – 300 million minutes

5. Atypical (Netflix) – 291 million minutes

6. The Movies That Made Us (Netflix) – 272 million minutes

7. Lucifer (Netflix) – 202 million minutes

8. Bosch (Amazon) – 187 million minutes

9. Loki (Disney+) – 180 million minutes

10. Orange Is the New Black (Netflix) – 164 million minutes

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