Yahoo News ‘Friends’ Streaming Rises Following Matthew Perry’s Death
With the news of Matthew Perry’s death in late October, viewers seemingly turned to his best-known role as Chandler Bing on Friends to remember him.
The beloved comedy gathered 583 million minutes of viewing on Max for the week of Oct. 23-29 (Perry, 54, was found dead at his home on Oct. 28). That was a 31 percent gain over the previous week and the biggest total watch time for Friends since early February.
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A pair of movies, No Hard Feelings and Five Nights at Freddy’s, also made strong showings on the Nielsen streaming charts for the week. The former, starring Jennifer Lawrence, led the rankings with 1.13 billion minutes of viewing on Netflix in the United States — the equivalent of about 10.97 full showings of the movie. That’s two thirds of the worldwide total Netflix reported in its own rankings for the week.
Five Nights at Freddy’s, meanwhile, drew 740 million minutes of viewing for its first three days on Peacock while also being released simultaneously in theaters — where it scored a $78 million opening weekend domestically, good for the third best start ever for a horror movie at the box office. The 740 million minutes of streaming is Peacock’s best week for a movie since it joined the Nielsen rankings last year, topping the streaming debuts for Halloween Ends and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (717 million minutes each).
After 18 consecutive weeks of more than a billion viewing minutes, Suits (barely) fell below that mark with 997 million minutes of watch time on Netflix and Peacock. The legal drama finished second overall, a little ahead of The Fall of the House of Usher (944 million minutes) on Netflix.
Three shows made their debuts on the charts for the week: Netflix’s nature series Life on Our Planet (676 million minutes) and docuseries Get Gotti (490 million) and Hulu’s American Horror Stories anthology (327 million). Netflix’s animated series Big Mouth (383 million minutes) returned to the rankings following the premiere of its seventh season.
Nielsen’s streaming ratings cover viewing on TV sets only and don’t include minutes watched on computers or mobile devices. The ratings only measure U.S. audiences, not those in other countries. The top streaming titles for Oct. 23-29 are below.
Overall
1. No Hard Feelings (Netflix), 1.13 billion minutes viewed
2. Suits (Netflix/Peacock), 997 million
3. The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix), 944 million
4. Grey’s Anatomy (Netflix), 854 million
5. Bluey (Disney+), 771 million
6. Bodies (Netflix), 768 million
7. Gilmore Girls (Netflix), 751 million
8. Five Nights at Freddy’s (Peacock), 740 million
9. NCIS (Netflix/Paramount+), 709 million
10. Life on Our Planet (Netflix), 676 million
Original Series
1. The Fall of the House of Usher, 944 million minutes
2. Bodies, 768 million
3. Life on Our Planet, 676 million
4. Loki (Disney+), 514 million
5. Get Gotti (Netflix), 490 million
6. Goosebumps (Disney+/Hulu), 445 million
7. Big Mouth (Netflix), 383 million
8. The Great British Baking Show (Netflix), 350 million
9. American Horror Stories (Hulu), 327 million
10. Gen V (Prime Video), 299 million
Acquired Series
1. Suits, 997 million minutes
2. Grey’s Anatomy, 854 million
3. Bluey, 771 million
4. Gilmore Girls, 751 million
5. NCIS, 709 million
6. Cocomelon (Netflix), 660 million
7. Friends (Max), 583 million
8. The Simpsons (Disney+), 480 million
9. Shameless (Netflix), 455 million
10. The Big Bang Theory (Max), 450 million
Movies
1. No Hard Feelings, 1.13 billion minutes
2. Five Nights at Freddy’s, 740 million
3. Old Dads (Netflix), 643 million
4. Pain Hustlers (Netflix), 543 million
5. Elemental (Disney+), 463 million
6. The Nightmare Before Christmas (Disney+), 338 million
7. The Haunted Mansion (Disney+), 277 million
8. Minions (Netflix), 275 million
9. Knights of the Zodiac (Netflix), 266 million
10. The Burial (Prime Video), 255 million
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