As the streaming wars kick it up to the next level with Peacock and soon HBO Max on the battlefield, a surging Netflix made it very apparent who is still king, in no small part thanks to the success of “Tiger King” and the return of “Money Heist.”
In an investor letter released today for the Reed Hastings-run streamer’s Q1 earnings report in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and widespread stay-at-home orders, the sordid saga of the now-imprisoned Joe Exotic, big cats, betrayal and more was watched by 64 million households around the planet over its first month of release. To give a global context, that blockbuster number for “Tiger King” is slightly exceeded by the Season 4 launch of the suspenseful “La Casa de Papel,” a k a “Money Heist,” which dropped on April 3. The latest eight-episode season of the Álex Pina-created Spanish-language worldwide hit has had 65 million households, according to the investor letter Netflix put out after the closing bell today.
Detailing a big new subscriber boost of nearly 16 million to a global total of 183 million, Netflix certainly finds itself in strong form in an economic environment that has seen giants like Disney bleeding money and cutting workers. Still, after a few weeks of record-breaking jumps, Netflix’s stock was a pretty staid $433.83 when the market turned off the lights on Tuesday.
The news today of the big number for “Tiger King” follows a recent report by Nielsen that the March 20 launched seven-episode series tantalizingly directed by Rebecca Chaikin and Eric Goode initially had 34.3 million unique viewers in its first 10 days of release. Regardless of your take on the merits of “Tiger King,” the tale of private zoo intrigue also coincided with COVID-19 crisis seeing much of the world go into lockdown and small screen viewership soar globally.