New Netflix Series Triples Viewership in Second Week

Netflix has updated their weekly viewership metrics website, delivering some disappointing news for Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up, and with it revealed that one of their latest TV shows has taken off in a big way. Based on the podcast of the same name, Netflix’s Archive 81 debuted on January 14th on the service and quickly shot up to the #1 position on the Daily Top 10 on the streaming service. According to Netflix’s own metrics, Archive 81 was only the #7 TV series in its first week, being streamed over 22.22 million hours, but in week two more than tripled its viewership to become the #2 TV series on the platform with 70.98 million hours streamed.

To put these numbers in perspective however, the first week of numbers for Archive 81 on Netflix only accounts for the first three days of its release, so the sharp rise in viewership accounts for the series simply being available for viewing longer. Comparing this uptick in viewership percentage wise, Archive 81‘s upward swing is not the norm. For example, Cobra Kai season four actually dropped from week one to week two by 11% while The Witcher season two increased by 16%, with most fluctuating in that same range. What this seemingly does indicate is that the word of mouth for Archive 81 has been strong. When looking at the show’s position on the Netflix Top 10 charts it topped out at #1 for five days in a row in the United States from January 17 to January 21 and has remained in the #2 position ever since.

For further comparison about the word of mouth success that Archive 81 is having, the series’ week 2 numbers fell just below the week 1 numbers of Ozark season four, which topped out at 77 million hours streamed. The real test for Archive 81 will be what its viewership metrics look like in week 3.

Netflix viewers unaware about the series, Archive 81 is officially described as follows:

“Archive 81 follows archivist Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie), who takes a job restoring a collection of damaged videotapes from 1994. Reconstructing the work of a documentary filmmaker named Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi), he is drawn into her investigation of a dangerous cult at the Visser apartment building. As the season unfolds across these two timelines, Dan slowly finds himself obsessed with uncovering what happened to Melody. When the two characters form a mysterious connection, Dan becomes convinced he can save her from the terrifying end she met 25 years ago.”

(Cover photo by Thiago Prudencio/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)