While HBO’s The Last of Us turned out to be a smash hit for the network and with audiences more broadly, it is still yet to dethrone the juggernaut that is Netflix in the Nielsen ratings, and actually slipped back by a place in the most recent top ten rankings.
Netflix has once again proved that all it needs is You to dominate the charts, with the serial-killing thriller featuring the talents of Penn Badgley taking the top spot in Nielsen’s rankings for the second week in a row, drawing in nearly 1.5 billion minutes viewed for the Feb 13 – 19 period (via Deadline).
The Last of Us, meanwhile, fell from the number three spot last week and down into number four, with Netflix’s Your Place or Mine hopping over HBO’s post-apocalyptic drama and pushing it down into number four. The Netflix original romcom starring Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon drew in a larger audience than it did in the previous week, while The Last of Us drew in a slightly smaller crowd, dropping from 1.1 billion minutes viewed to 943 million.
It’s worth nothing (per The Hollywood Reporter) that Nielsen’s streaming data only accounts for views on television sets, and not other devices like mobile phones and computers. What’s also worth pointing out, is that the HBO show’s competition includes all seasons of competing shows, and not just the most recent outing. With that in mind, considering The Last of Us only has six episodes to its name (at the time of this data), it is still performing absurdly well.
What’s more puzzling is why Your Place or Mine had a brief surge in popularity, especially considering how poorly received the Netflix original was. It currently sits at an abysmal 31 percent Tomatometer rating, via Rotten Tomatoes.
Given that The Last of Us only ever seemed to pick up more steam over its nine week run, we’re curious to see how it ends up faring, and if it can snag the top spot at some point as Nielsen’s data catches up. Surely You traffic slowed down at some point between the first and second parts of its fourth season, right?