Amazon’s The Boys is one of the biggest streaming successes of the year, delivering a faithful adaptation of the Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson-penned source material that doesn’t shy away from explicit content. We already know that The Boys is reportedly more popular than every Marvel show on Netflix, but now it’s been revealed that the series received more than 4 million viewers in its initial 10 days of release on Amazon Prime Video. With a second season already on the way, The Boys is arguably a gamble that paid off for the company in bringing adult-themed superheroes to the screen.
The viewing figures come courtesy of the Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings, which recently added Amazon streaming shows to its data collection. According to the numbers, The Boys averaged roughly 4.1 million viewers per episode, including 6 million for the premiere, and around 8 million viewers who just sampled the show. Furthermore, these numbers are only taken from the USA and only for audiences watching on a television set.
The success of The Boys will no doubt add more pressure to Netflix, who are doubling down on their original programming ahead of the launch this November of Disney Plus and Apple TV+. Such was Amazon’s confidence in the series, which ranks amongst their most-watched original shows, that they quickly greenlit a second run of episodes, which we’ve already received some behind-the-scenes scenes photos of, available below.
Amazon are certainly pleased with the latest figures, too, with Head of Amazon Studios Jennifer Salke commenting as so:
“We are thrilled that The Boys have surpassed our predictions for viewing in its first two weeks, and has become one of our most watched Amazon Original series by our Prime Video customers.”
Moreover, executive producer Eric Kripke had this to say about the future of the series:
“I’m so beyond thrilled with the response to Season 1. And mainly, it’s made me get my ass in gear and work even harder on Season 2. I don’t want Season 2 to go bigger, I want it to go deeper. A more intense, more insane, more wrenching, more character-driven season. It’s my one and only goal to make Season 2 even better than Season 1.”
We already know that season 2 of The Boys is going to introduce new characters, and that it’s going to explore more of Ennis and Robertson’s world. While a release date for the second season has yet to be confirmed, we’ll be sure to bring it to you as soon as it’s announced, so stay tuned.