Netflix’s ‘Lucifer’ Season 5 Dominates Nielsen’s Streaming Ratings
“Lucifer” has long been a ratings driver and Season 5 has been no exception: Netflix subscribers spent over one billion minutes viewing the series, which released the second half of Season 5 on the streaming service earlier this year.
That statistic comes from Nielsen, which stated that “Lucifer” was watched for 1.284 billion minutes from May 24 to May 30. The popularity of “Lucifer” is such that the show garnered more viewing minutes than the second and third most-watched show’s of the week — Netflix’s “The Kominsky Method” and “Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous” — during that time period.
Nielsen’s data is only based on United States audiences using TV sets and only covers Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney+. The company releases its streaming data reports on a roughly one-month delay due to an arrangement with the aforementioned streaming services. The entertainment industry’s major streaming services do not regularly release their own verifiable viewership data.
“Lucifer” is a superhero show based on the DC Comics character co-created by Neil Gaiman (whose “The Sandman” comic is currently being adapted into a Netflix series). Tom Ellis stars as the titular character, who begins the series by abandoning Hell to create a life for himself in Los Angeles as a consultant for the City of Los Angeles Police Department. The recently-released second half of “Lucifer” Season 5 centers on God’s decision to retire and Lucifer’s efforts to succeed him.
New “Lucifer” episodes tend to be a significant draw for Netflix, which picked up the series after it was canceled by Fox in 2018. The premiere of the first half of “Lucifer” Season 5 drew in nearly 1.6 billion viewing minutes in August 2020, according to Nielsen data. A sixth and final season of the series, which is created by Tom Kapinos, was ordered by Netflix in June 2020.
Two non-Netflix titles cracked Nielsen’s latest list of the most-watched streaming shows. “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which recently released its fourth season on Hulu, was the fourth most-watched show on the list with 439 million minutes. The Elisabeth Moss-led show topped Nielsen’s list of most-watched streaming shows last week. Amazon Prime Video also boasted a title in Nielsen’s streaming list via “Panic,” the teen drama that premiered on Amazon’s streaming service on May 28. “Panic” was viewed for 142 million minutes from May 24 to May 30, according to Nielsen.
1. Lucifer (Netflix) – 1,284 million minutes
2. The Kominsky Method (Netflix) – 495 million minutes
3. Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous (Netflix) – 470 million minutes
4. The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu) – 439 million minutes
5. Ragnarok (Netflix) – 429 million minutes
6. Who Killed Sara (Netflix) – 396 million minutes
7. Jupiter’s Legacy (Amazon Prime Video) – 214 million minutes
8. Panic (2021) (Amazon) – 192 million minutes
9. The Great British Baking Show (Netflix) – 179 million minutes
10. The Upshaws (Netflix) – 165 million minutes
