In the midst of a global pandemic, one of the strangest true crime shows in recent memory has become an absolute behemoth of a hit for Netflix. Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness has been the talk of the town since it arrived on Netflix last month, holding tight to its position as the most popular title on the streaming service for more than two weeks straight. That streak doesn’t exactly tell the whole story, though. Tiger King had one of the biggest 10-day openings of any Netflix original series to this point.
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According to Nielsen estimates, per Variety, Tiger King had 34.3 million unique viewers from March 20th to March 29th. For comparison’s sake, Tiger King garnered a bigger audience than the second season of Stranger Things, which saw 31.2 million unique viewers. The docuseries came close to reaching the Stranger Things Season 3 audience, which drew in 36.3 million viewers in the same time frame last summer. The same comparisons apply to the average per-minute numbers, where Tiger King had an audience of 19 million compared to Stranger Things‘ 17.5 million in Season 2 and 20.5 million in Season 3.
Tiger King got off to a slow start, pulling in average numbers in its first two days. The audience on its debut was smaller than that of Mindhunter Season 2 and Altered Carbon Season 1. However, the series took off on day three and never looked back. No new release, not even the third season of Ozark, has been able to compete with Tiger King over the last couple of weeks.
If you haven’t watched Tiger King yet, you can check out Netflix’s official synopsis below.
“Among the eccentrics and cult personalities in the stranger-than-fiction world of big cat owners, few stand out more than Joe Exotic, a mulleted, gun-toting polygamist and country western singer who presides over an Oklahoma roadside zoo. Charismatic but misguided, Joe and an unbelievable cast of characters including drug kingpins, conmen, and cult leaders all share a passion for big cats, and the status and attention their dangerous menageries garner. But things take a dark turn when Carole Baskin, an animal activist and owner of a big cat sanctuary, threatens to put them out of business, stoking a rivalry that eventually leads to Joe’s arrest for a murder-for-hire plot, and reveals a twisted tale where the only thing more dangerous than a big cat is its owner.”
What do you think of Netflix’s Tiger King? How long to you think it will remain the most popular series on Netflix? Let us know in the comments!
