even weeks in a row with more than 3 billion viewing minutes, “Suits” has finally dropped below that marker, but it was still the most-streamed title between Aug. 14 and Aug. 20 by a mile. Nielsen’s weekly streaming rankings for Aug. 14-20 put the 2011-2019 USA drama at 2.8 billion minutes watched.
Since its Netflix debut on June 17 (the series was already streaming on Peacock, and Nielsen’s measurement combines viewership across both platforms), “Suits” has had a monstrous, record-breaking run on the chart. It became the most-watched acquired title (as opposed to streaming originals) in Nielsen history during the June 26-July 2 window, and broke its own record for each of the three following weeks. In the July 24-30 window, it beat “Wednesday” to achieve the second-highest six-week viewership total ever, coming second only to “Stranger Things” after its Season 4 debut — then between Aug. 7 and Aug. 18, it beat “Stranger Things” to become the first show ever to cross 3 billion minutes watched for seven consecutive weeks. (Note: These records are based on viewership over the last three years, as Nielsen first began measuring streaming in 2020.)
And even without new records to break, “Suits” still brought in 153% more viewership than this week’s next most-watched title. That No. 2 spot went to “Painkiller,” the Netflix limited series that debuted last week at No. 4 with 990 million minutes watched before shooting to 1.1 billion minutes in its first full week of availability.
“Bluey” was the No. 3 title of the week. The animated preschool series had already cemented its status as a Nielsen mainstay over the course of 2023 thus far, but hit 1 billion minutes watched for the first time during the July 10-16 viewing window and has remained on the top half of the chart ever since — as opposed to the bottom half, where it used to live alongside fellow kids’ fare “Cocomelon,” which this week landed at No. 10 with 629 million minutes.
Though the Netflix film “Heart of Stone” dropped from its 966 million minute debut to 777 million minutes in its first full week of availability, it stepped up to fourth place, having landed at No. 5 the week before. This week’s No. 5 was chart regular “NCIS” (775 million minutes).
In sixth place was “The Lincoln Lawyer,” which was watched for 768 million minutes in the second full week of availability of the second half of Season 2, down from second place with 1.4 billion minutes the week before. It was followed by “Grey’s Anatomy” (738 million minutes), which has more recently become a chart regular.
“Depp v. Heard” was the No. 8 title of the week with 704 million minutes watched in its first five days of availability on Netflix — solid viewership, especially noting that the docuseries is made up of only three episodes.
At No. 9 was “Ballers,” the sports dramedy that Netflix acquired on Aug. 15. The series was watched for 696 million minutes across both Netflix and Max during this viewing window.
See Nielsen’s list of overall streaming rankings for Aug. 14-20 first, followed by original streaming titles, acquired titles and then films.
