Nielsen Data Backs up That Netflix’s ‘Bird Box’ Drew a Huge Audience

Netflix’s Bird Box is now a trending hit, having generated massive buzz across social media, and inspiring all kinds of memes and viral video crazes. That’s usually about the only measure we have for how well (or not) a Netflix project is doing, as the company (in)famously doesn’t release any kind of traditional ratings measurements.

Well, now a new report claims to have information about just how many viewers Bird Box had – and the numbers seem to match the Internet hype!

According to Variety, Nielsen ratings measure Bird Box pulling in estimated “26 million” unique viewers in the US, during its first week of its release during the Christmas holiday (Dec 21st – 27th). Both Netflix and Nielsen concur that this is the streaming service’s biggest release to date, surpassing Stranger Things Season 2’s release in fall of 2017.

Netflix has already hyped the fact that Bird Box is its most watched original movie release, stating that the film had been viewed over 45 million times over the first week of release – with each of those viewers watching at least 70% of the film. Some people have questioned the accuracy of that statistic, but given what Nielsen is now adding to the conversation, it seems that Netflix was (pretty much) accurate in its initial viewership counts. It should be considered that Netflix is reporting its global viewer totals, instead of the 26 million just in the US, which Nielsen is counting.

In 2017, the streaming service put out David Ayer’s cop drama / fantasy film, Bright, which similarly generated big viewer counts and buzz. Ironically, the Will Smith-led Bright actually opened bigger than Bird Box (5.4 million vs. 3.5 million), but also presents the clearest case of how the Netflix model functions. Bright might’ve generated a bigger initial audience than Bird Box, but for Netflix social media buzz is king, and Bird Box has generated much more social media presence and positive word of mouth than Bright. The result is a much bigger difference in first-week views, with Bright reaching 20 million viewers, while Bird Box reached 26 million. Bird Box also continues to have wings, as estimates are the film is reaching an average of about 4 million viewers a day, since its release.

If nothing else, it seems that Netflix has truly struck gold with its holiday movie release plan – generating far more interest and buzz than some of the major films released in theaters during the Christmas season.

Bird Box is now streaming Netflix. Don’t be the only one who doesn’t look at it.