Developed by A.C Nielsen in the 1950s, the Nielsen ratings of American television shows have always been a much-awaited rating system in the industry ever since. And the results this year were shocking, to say the least. Lucifer outperformed the likes of Squid Game, Bridgerton, and Cobra Kai to become the most-watched series in terms of viewership.

How do the Nielsen ratings work?

Being an established brand name with a reputation to uphold, Nielsen Ratings do not compromise on the quality of content they deliver. Keep in mind that these ratings have nothing to do with reviews. These ratings are based purely on numbers, statistics, and consumer viewing behavior.

Nielsen Television Measurement study all there is to analyze about consumers and information related to their viewing behavior. From finding out which members of a household view what kind of shows to finding out programs they all watch together, these ratings cover every book and corner in the field. This helps service providers redefine and target their products with more ease and accuracy.

While Netflix has its own rating system, the Nielsen ratings still aren’t inconsequential. They help viewers gain insight into what they are viewing, considering how discreet Netflix keeps its data.

How was Lucifer ahead of other shows?

Nielsen rates series through “electronic metering technology” using tools that analyze all of the aspects we’ve mentioned above.

Lucifer appeared on Fox broadcast network before it set foot on Netflix. Since the viewership is measured in terms of the number of minutes viewers spend on the show, Lucifer instantly fared well.

Squid Game, although a leading show, has only 9 episodes of about an hour each. Despite this, the show boasts a viewership of  16.4 billion minutes. As for Lucifer, it has a total of 93 episodes that have garnered a viewership of 18.3 billion minutes. If we break down these numbers, each episode of Lucifer still has around 1/18th viewership as that of Squid Game.

But, Lucifer remains the show that viewers spent most time watching. Stream it on Netflix now!