Netflix's breakout hit on chess, is the service's most viewed limited series, the company announced on Monday. Based on Netflix's own yardstick for measuring popularity (see below ...), The Queen's Gambit was observed by 62 million households in the first four weeks after publication. A limited series is a show that usually only has one season.
That compares to nearly as many as The Irishman, Netflix's epic about the Mafia directed by Martin Scorsese, valued at $ 159 million, and Tiger King, his viral documentary this spring.
Netflix attributed the Queen's Gambit sensation to other viral chess trends, according to Peter Friedlander, Netflix's vice president of the original series, in a blog post. The novel that forms the basis of the show is on the New York Times bestseller list 37 years after its publication. Google searches for chess have doubled, and searches for "play chess" have peaked in nine years. Interest in chess games on eBay has increased 250% and Goliath Games announced that chess sales have increased over 170%. and the number of new players on chess.com has quintupled.
Netflix was notorious for years when it came to viewership. The creator of House of cards, who put Netflix's original content efforts on the map, once said the company wouldn't even tell him viewership numbers. But over the past year, Netflix has eased its near-absolute silence about the popularity of its shows and movies in an effort to recruit talent and generate buzz.
Netflix's popularity calls for disclaimers. For one thing, they are neither independently verified nor backed up by detailed company data. Netflix is in a unique position that it can pick highlights, and we don't have a lot of independent data to back up. Traditional media companies, on the other hand, have their box office performance independently monitored and are exposed to the Nielsen ratings as a barometer for TV programs.
Speaking of Nielsen, don't compare Netflix's numbers with metrics like Nielsen ratings or checkout numbers. It's tempting to compare how many people saw a Netflix show with one on regular television, or to estimate how much money a big movie on Netflix would have made at the box office. However, these metrics are nowhere near comparable, as the methods behind them differ greatly.
Earlier this year, Netflix switched to a new audience. Netflix will now count a track as "seen" if you watch it and let it play for only two minutes. On some shows or movies, you can turn it off before you reach the main title sequence - and it still counts as a view.
