‘Virgin River’ Hits Series High, Dethrones ‘Stranger Things’

Rick Porter
·2 min read
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Stranger Things claimed the top spot in Nielsen’s streaming rankings for seven of the eight weeks after its fourth season premiered. Or now, eight of nine.

The supernatural thriller ceded the No. 1 ranking for the week of July 18-24 to a very different show: Virgin River, Netflix’s Hallmark-esque romantic drama, led the chart for the week with 2.64 billion minutes of viewing time. That’s the best single week for the series in the two years of Nielsen’s streaming chart; its previous high was 2.11 billion minutes a week after season three premiered last year. Season four of Virgin River debuted July 20.

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Stranger Things continued to perform, adding 2.28 billion minutes of watch time to its tally. It now sits at almost 37.8 billion minutes of viewing since the season four premiere May 27.

The other debuts among the top 10 originals was Spanish series Alba (coded as a Netflix original in the United States) at 416 million minutes and Blown Away at 284 million. Resident Evil slipped a bit in its second week on the chart, falling 10 percent to 772 million minutes.

Nielsen’s streaming ratings cover viewing on TV sets only and don’t include minutes watched on computers or mobile devices. The ratings only measure U.S. audiences, not those in other countries, and currently only include Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix and Prime Video.

Nielsen’s top streaming series for July 18-24 are below.

Original Series

1. Virgin River (Netflix), 2.64 billion minutes viewed
2. Stranger Things (Netflix), 2.28 billion
3. Resident Evil (Netflix), 772 million
4. The Umbrella Academy (Netflix), 553 million
5. The Boys (Prime Video), 532 million
5 (tie) The Terminal List (Prime Video), 532 million
7. Alba (Netflix), 416 million
8. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu), 372 million
9. Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (Netflix), 361 million
10. Blown Away (Netflix), 284 million

Acquired Series

1. Alone (Hulu/Netflix), 745 million minutes
2. NCIS (Netflix), 737 million
3. Cocomelon (Netflix), 705 million
4. Grey’s Anatomy (Netflix), 666 million
5. Gilmore Girls (Netflix), 489 million
6. The Big Bang Theory (HBO Max), 406 million
7. Friends (HBO Max), 402 million
7 (tie) Seinfeld (Netflix), 402 million
7 (tie) Supernatural (Netflix), 402 million
10. Heartland (Netflix), 371 million

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