76 Million Households Watched Netflix's The Witcher for At Least Two Minutes
More than 76 million households have watched the new show starring Henry Cavill. Or at least some of it.
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Game of Thrones is dead; long live Geralt and Henry Cavill. The Witcher is proving that the thirst for action-fantasy is as strong as ever, with Netflix announcing today that the show is on track to be its biggest season one TV series ever.
Netflix says 76 million member households watched The Witcher in a letter to shareholders highlighting stats and info about its latest round of shows.
"As a testament to how our hit content can penetrate the global zeitgeist and influence popular culture, the show's launch drove up sales of The Witcher books and games around the world, and spawned a viral musical hit," Netflix says.
But Netflix has changed how it measures a "view" internally. Previously, members had to watch 70% of a single episode of a series, or 70% of a movie for it to count as a "view." The new definition, as listed in a footnote on the earnings report, denotes a view as, "Chose to watch and did watch for at least 2 minutes—long enough to indicate the choice was intentional—is the precise definition."
First released back in December, The Witcher is geared toward adapting the popular Polish novels by Andrzej Sapkowski. Netflix has been careful to pitch it toward mainstream audiences without alienating gamers, and its efforts seem to have paid off. Despite mixed reviews in some quarters, The Witcher is a hit. Modders are even putting Henry Cavill in The Witcher 3.
For its part, CD Projekt Red is focused on Cyberpunk 2077, but it's still reaping the benefits as sales for the games have soared. And with CD Projekt having recently buried the hatchet with Sapkowski, this might not be the last we see of The Witcher video games.
No matter which medium it appears in, The Witcher is just about the biggest thing going in fantasy right now. Let's just hope that it gets a better ending than Game of Thrones.