E-commerce titan Amazon.com Inc AMZN launched its first original series in 2013 as it worked to grow out its Amazon Prime Video streaming platform. The video streaming platform can be traced back to 2006 and is a membership perk to those who pay for Amazon Prime.
Recent data from The Hollywood Reporter shows what the most watched series on Amazon Prime Video have been over the last two years.
What Happened: Over the last two years, Amazon has put an emphasis on adapting bestselling novels into series for its Prime Video platform, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The company’s three biggest hits in terms of viewership, “Reacher,” “The Wheel of Time” and “The Boys,” are based on books. Other hit shows for Prime Video, including “Bosch” and “Jack Ryan,” are also based on stories from bestselling books.
According to data from Nielsen NLSN used in the report, the most popular series on Amazon Prime Video over the last two years were the following:
- “Reacher”: 5.76 billion minutes
- “The Wheel of Time”: 4.91 billion minutes
- “The Boys” season: 4.8 billion minutes
- “Hunters”: 4.58 billion minutes
To put the figures in perspective, Netflix Inc NFLX shared in November its 10 most watched shows of all-time. Among the series that are from the last two years, here are the top English-language shows:
- “Bridgerton” season 1: 37.5 billion minutes
- “The Witcher” season 1: 32.5 billion minutes
- “Maid”: 28.1 billion minutes
- “You” season 3: 28.1 billion minutes
The statistics from Netflix don’t include the recently released “Stranger Things” season four, which saw a huge debut on the streaming platform, or the second season of “Bridgerton.”
The figures from Netflix are based on the company releasing its figures in millions of hours watched.
Amazon Prime still greatly trails the hit shows from Netflix, with many of the hit originals on Netflix posting in their premiere week what a top Amazon Prime Video show can put up in a month or more.
Related Link: Amazon Q1 Earnings Highlights
Why It’s Important: Amazon has placed a large bet on another bestselling novel with the highly anticipated “The Lord of the Rings” getting adapted into a television series. “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is scheduled for a Sept. 2, 2022 premiere.
Movies based on “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” from JRR Tolkien have grossed over $1.8 billion domestically.
The show from Amazon was ranked as the second most anticipated new series for 2022 by IMDb. A second season for “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is already in the works.
Amazon Prime Video has always been a perk of the company’s subscription service that includes perks like free two-day shipping.
Amazon raised its price for Prime memberships from $12.99 to $14.99 monthly and $119 to $139 annually.
With dozens of streaming platforms to choose from, new hit shows by Amazon Prime Video could help justify having a Prime membership over some of the others that come with no e-commerce perks.
AMZN Price Action: Amazon shares were up 2.47% to $106.22 on Friday.
Photo by Matt Grace, courtesy of Prime Video.
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