For some strange reason, fans started review bombing season 2 of The Boys once they discovered that the final five episodes would be arriving on a weekly basis, because they love the show that much that they were furious about not getting the whole thing all at once and decided that attempting to downvote it into oblivion was the best way to voice their displeasure.
Amazon’s release strategy looks to have worked a treat, though, with the streaming service estimating that viewership has almost doubled over season 1, and the weekly model gives each individual episode the chance to grab the headlines, leaving people wanting more. Not only that, but the constant buzz will also have new audiences checking it out to see what all the fuss is about.
The binge watching tactic certainly suits subscribers, but it ends with a lot of shows bursting onto the scene and then quickly fading away. Take the return of The Umbrella Academy for example, which absolutely dominated Netflix’s Top 10 most-watched list when it debuted at the end of July, but hardly anyone talks about it anymore.
Nielsen have recently started tracking ratings for streaming services, though, and right now, The Boys is the third most popular title across any platform over the last week and one of just two non-Netflix entries on the list, and if you want to get into technicalities and specifics, then it’s also the biggest original hit available, as you can see from the Top 10 below.
1. Cobra Kai (Netflix), 2.17 billion minutes viewed
2. Lucifer (Netflix), 1.42 billion
3. The Boys (Amazon), 891 million
4. The Office (Netflix), 843 million
5. Criminal Minds (Netflix), 675 million
6. Shameless (Netflix), 639 million
7. Away (Netflix), 631 million
8. Grey’s Anatomy (Netflix), 616 million
9. The Legend of Korra (Netflix), 541 million
10. Mulan (Disney+), 525 million
Lucifer has only been a Netflix original for one and a half seasons, while Cobra Kai doesn’t become exclusive to the platform until next year’s season 3. Furthermore, Away is the only other new show in the Top 10, meaning that The Boys is comfortably the biggest in-house hit to be found as it firmly establishes itself as the jewel in Amazon’s crown.