There has been so much discussion around the viewing numbers after Deadline dropped their article about the 'most watched' Netflix shows over the last few years. This has led some Bridgerton fans to gloat, say that S3 'won' and that they are the most watched season, however, this is misleading.
The seasons cannot be compared with the total data presented because we do not have commensurate data for S1 and S2 to the data we have for S3 and S4 because the viewing numbers for the full years are not available for the release years of the first two seasons. But let's look at the raw numbers, then compare some commensurate data, not to prove that these fans are wrong, or to prove that my favourite season is better, but to prove that statistics and the data sets can be used to tell whatever story you want them to.
Below are the viewing numbers from the Netflix engagement reports for each year from 2023 to 2026. The numbers were released for each half of the year, and for the first half of 2023 the viewing hours was released, so I have converted based on runtime of the seasons.
2023 (Queen Charlotte Release in May)
S1: 136.6M hrs (16.7M views) + 7.3M views = 24M views
S2: 133.4M hrs (15.7M views) + 6.8M views - 22.5M views
Queen Charlotte: 503M hrs (77.6M views) + 12M views = 89.6M views
2024 (S3 Release in May/June)
S1: 38.4M views + 10.6M views = 49M views
S2: 34.2M views + 10M views = 44.2M views
S3: 91.9M views + 21.7M views = 113.6M views
Queen Charlotte: 24.4M views + 9.4M views
S1: 9.3M views + 8.3M views = 17.6M views
S2: 7.7M views + 6.8M views = 14.5M views
S3: 9.7N views + 7.7M views = 17.4M views
Queen Charlotte: 5.4M views + 4.3M views = 9.7M views
2026 (S4 Release in January):
Queen Charlotte: 12.9M views
So let's look at these numbers on a like for like basis. Using release years is not something we can do, we do not have data from the release years of S1 or S2, and it would be unfair to compare S3 (released in May and June) with S4 (released in January and February) as the amount of time for the data is unequal.
So the next thing we can look at is the full year following a release year, but we can only do that for S2 (released in 2023) and S3 (released in 2024), but again that would not be commensurate data as the conditions would not be the same with a release from the Bridgerton universe in 2023 and nothing in 2025. Though if we were to do that we can see that S2 had 22.5M views in the year after its release vs S3 which only had 17.4M views in the year after its release.
Another number we can do 'like for like' is that of a release year after the season release, so 2023 for S2 (release year of Queen Charlotte) adn 2026 for S3 (release year of S4). But since we only have 6 months for 2026 we will only look at the first half of 2023 for S2. We can see there that S2 had 34.2M views in the first half of 2023 ahead of the QC release, while S3 only had 23.2M views in the first half of 2026 ahead of S4's release. S1 cannot be included as we don't have this data for 2022.
Another like for like that is available is the first 6 months 2 years after release year, again we can't really do S1 since the release year for S1 was 2020, and we don't have the data for 2022, however, we can do S2 and S3, but that has already been looked at with the release years above as the respective 2 year mark is 2024 and 2026.
What this shows is that using numbers to make a point can be tricky, these numbers can be used to show that S2 'won' over S3, or it can be used to claim that S3 is the most popular and most rewatched, but is it? S3 failed to get anywhere near the rewatch numbers in 2026 that S1 adn S2 enjoyed in 2024, so would it be considered the most rewatched, or is it a case it was the most recent and it has not had as long for viewers to have rewatched and moved on? I would actually argue that S1 is the most rewatched season, not season 3.
I recommend that you just understand that numbers can be used to present a narrative or story that you want to sell, but with only partial data we can't make any definitive statements about the views for the seasons.
titsay
vaporwave
dailybridgerton