Bridgerton Season 2 Breaks Netflix Viewership Record
Audiences are really flocking to Bridgerton season 2, as the romance series has broken Netflix's record for most hours viewed in one week.
Bridgerton season 2 continues to smash Netflix's streaming records, this time for its first week of availability. The Regency era romance series, which in turn is based on author Julia Quinn's best-selling books about the Bridgerton siblings, has returned for another swoon-worthy season. Whereas Bridgerton season 1 focused on the steamy dynamic between eldest daughter Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon, the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page), its sophomore run turns the focus on Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and his enemies-to-lovers relationship with Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley). All the while, mysterious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown continues to pass judgement on all the matters and scandals of the ton.
The first season of Bridgerton debuted back at the very end of 2020, yet somehow became the television sensation of the year. It broke Netflix records to become the streamer's most-watched original series at the time. Though Korean sensation Squid Game bested Bridgerton last year and took that title, the arrival of season 2 has allowed the latter to reiterate its popularity. For the March 25-27 weekend, Bridgerton season 2 scored Netflix's biggest opening weekend for an English-language series after notching 193 million viewing hours.
It seems that was just the beginning for Anthony and Kate's love story. Netflix just updated its weekly top 10 list, and Bridgerton season 2 sits at #1. For the week of March 28-April 3, the series amassed a stunning 251.7 million hours of viewing time. As noted by IndieWire, that is much higher than fellow Shondaland series Inventing Anna, which previously held the record for the biggest first week for an English-language series with nearly 196 hours. Squid Game still can claim the biggest week ever with 571.8 million hours.
With these numbers, Netflix must feel good about its decision to renew Bridgerton through season 4. Producer Shonda Rhimes and showrunner Chris Van Dusen have been open about their desire to adapt all 8 of Quinn's novels, each of which tracks a different love story within the Bridgerton family. If the show continues to exhibit this kind of staying power, it seems likely that Netflix will happily give Bridgerton as many seasons as it wishes. The year-plus gap between seasons 1 and 2 has likely allowed more people to find the show, and there could be even more next time around.
So far, details on Bridgerton season 3 have been pretty light. Rhimes hinted that it might not keep with Quinn's novels as the first two seasons did; many expected Benedict (Luke Thompson) to be the lead for season 3, but that might not be the case. Scripts are being written now, so it is likely that Bridgerton will not return until sometime in 2023. That can give season 2 plenty of time to rack up even more viewing numbers as audiences wait to fall in love all over again.