Netflix's live-action adaptation of The Witcher is officially a hit. At least, that's according to the streaming service, who've claimed that the gritty fantasy show is on track to become the most-viewed first season Netflix has ever put out. In its Q4 earnings report, Netflix reported that the Henry Cavill-fronted show was watched by 76 million "member households" in its first four weeks of release. Take that, Stranger Things.
Netflix also boasted of how The Witcher drove up sales of the original Andrzej Sapkowski novels on which the show is based. It also touched on how the season premiere gave a huge boost to CD Projekt RED's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. After the show hit Netflix in December, the epic open world RPG blew up on Steam, with more gamers playing it than there were when it released in 2015. An amazing achievement.
Oh, and Netflix also paid brief tribute to the "viral musical hit" Toss A Coin To Your Witcher. Because how can you talk about the success of The Witcher without discussing the fact that Jaskier casually dropped the hottest track of 2019? You just can't, can you?
While we're obviously happy to hear that The Witcher was a success, it is worth noting that Netflix judges that success entirely through its own metrics. It doesn't gauge viewership in the same way in which traditional TV does, and even changed its own internal system recently.
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According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix's new definition of "watched" simply incorporates anyone who "chose to watch and did for at least two minutes." That's a fairly massive change from the previous system, which counted a view as anyone who "watched 70 percent of a single episode of a series".
When you really put that number into perspective, is two minutes of eight hour-long episodes really that impressive? Hell, if you think about it, that's less time than it takes to reach the opening credits of the first episode. How many people do you suppose watched those first two minutes before deciding it wasn't for them? Quite a few, I'd wager.
Regardless of how Netflix wants to measure the viewing figures, there's no denying the massive number of passionate fans that have rallied around The Witcher in the last few weeks. The increased sales of the books and games, not to mention the endless covers of Toss A Coin To Your Witcher kind of speak for themselves. As do, of course, the devoted online fanbase that eagerly await season two.
Featured Image Credit: NetflixTopics: The Witcher