Squid Game Doesn’t Crack Nielsen Chart in First, Partial Week of Eligibility
In its first week of eligibility — though for only its first three days of release — Netflix’s Squid Game didn’t crack the Top 10 on the Nielsen Streaming Ranking, though it is poised to leap onto the chart in the coming weeks.
The Korean thriller about 456 people lured into a series of deadly children’s games — which Netflix recently touted as its most sampled series launch ever — racked up 206 million minutes of viewing during the week of Sept. 13-19, though it didn’t even premiere until the 17th. It thus fell well shy of Nielsen’s latest overall Top 10 ranking, but placed not far below Money Heist (which had 244 million minutes) on the ranking of streaming originals.
Brian Fuhrer, Nielsen’s SVP of Product Strategy, projects that Squid Game‘s surge onto the Nielsen charts is imminent, likening its potential trajectory to that of Netflix’s early-pandemic megahit, Tiger King.
What did make the overall Top 10 for the week of Sept. 13? Netflix’s Lucifer climbed a spot to reclaim the No. 1 title with nearly 1.6 billion minutes viewed. The champ from the previous two weeks, Netflix’s Clickbait, slipped to second place (with 732 million minutes), followed by the NBC-cancelled/Netflix-saved Manifest (712 million). Rounding out the Top 10 were Cocomelon, Criminal Minds, Sex Education, NCIS, Grey’s Anatomy, Heartland and The Circle.
Nielsen’s ranking of streaming originals was led by Lucifer, Clickbait, Sex Education and Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, followed by Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers, Netflix’s Turning Point: 9/11, the first six episodes of Disney+’s What If…?, Amazon’s LulaRich and Netflix’s Money Heist.
Rooting for Squid Game to achieve more historic markers and hoping the success of Only Murders in the Building leads to more shows of that type. Opposite ends of the spectrum!