Season 3 of “Bridgerton” hit 45.1 million views in its opening weekend on Netflix, a whopping success for the Regency-era drama.
The second season debuted in 2022, when Netflix still released viewing hours in terms of hours watched, with 193 million minutes watched across its eight episodes. When divided by that season’s 8.5-hour runtime, that translates to 22.7 million views — barely over half of Season 3’s debut. Exact data for Season 1’s debut weekend is unavailable, though it is known that it was outpaced by Season 2’s.
It should be noted that Season 3 debut numbers were counted over four days, while the Season 2 total only accounts for three, but with such a large jump between seasons, it’s still clear that the newest episodes are the series’ biggest yet.
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Despite that Season 3 debuted with only its first four episodes, clocking in at 3 hours and 40 minutes, it still rivals the series’ previous total viewing hours, hitting 165.2 million hours viewed in its first four days compared to Season 2’s 193 million in three days.
The season, led by Nicola Coughlan as as Penelope Featherington and Luke Newton returns as Colin Bridgerton, is sure to remain on the Netflix Top 10 for several weeks to come, with another four episodes set to premiere on July 13. Given its splashy debut, it’s likely that Season 3 will go on to rank among Netflix’s most popular English language series ever, which the streamer ranks in terms of views in each title’s first 91 days on Netflix. Season 2 currently ranks at No. 9 on that list with 93.8 million minutes watched, while Season 1 is at No. 4 with 113.3 million views, having had a longer tail than Season 2 even though Season 2 had a bigger debut.
Naturally, “Bridgerton” Season 3 was the most-watched title on Netflix during the May 13-18 window by a landslide. Seasons 1 and 2 also got a boost, landing at No. 4 with 4.5 million views and No. 8 with 3.3 million views, respectively.
After “Bridgerton,” the most-watched titles of the week were movies: “Mother of the Bride,” which hit 25.4 million views in its first full week of availability, and “Madame Web,” the No. 2 movie with 10.8 million views in its first five days on Netflix after a February theatrical premiere.
Back on the English-language TV chart, “Ashley Madison: Sex, Lives & Scandal” debuted at No. 2 with 9.5 million views in the docuseries first five days on Netflix. It was followed by “Baby Reindeer,” with hit 7.4 million views in its sixth week on the chart.
After a series of successful weeks for comedy specials on the Top 10, “Kevin Hart: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor” debuted at No. 5. The special, during which Hart was honored and roasted by fellow comedians, reached 4.1 million views. Enjoying its third week on the chart, “The Roast of Tom Brady,” taped live during Netflix Is a Joke Festival, took seventh place with 3.4 million views. Sandwiched in between the specials was “Bodkin,” which hit 4 million views in its second week on the chart.
At the bottom of the chart was “A Man in Full” at No. 9 with 2.4 million views in its third week followed by Season 2 of “The Blood of Zeus,” which debuted with 1.8 million views.
See Netflix’s Top 10 lists for the week of May 13-19 below. The lists begin with English-language series and are followed by non-English-language TV shows, English-language movies, and then non-English-language movies.
