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’13 Reasons Why’ Ratings: Season 2 Audience Bigger, Younger Than Netflix’s ‘The Crown’

Nielsen offers insight into how many people are watching the young adult series, even if Netflix balks at the data.
13 Reasons Why
"13 Reasons Why"
Beth Dubber/Netflix

Here’s one more reason “13 Reasons Why” is a hit: Per Nielsen, the first episode of Season 2’s per-minute average audience was 6.1 million viewers within the first three days of availability. That’s lower than “Stranger Things,” which averaged 15.8 million viewers for the first episode of its Season 2 — but dwarfs “The Crown,” which averaged nearly 3 million viewers within its first three days.

No surprise, “13 Reasons Why” is also much younger than “The Crown.” Per Nielsen, although the shows share a similar gender split (65 percent female, 35 percent male), its age distribution is reversed. About 75 percent of the “13 Reasons Why” is under 34 years old, while 75 percent of “The Crown” crowd is over 35.

Overall, within the first three days of its availability (May 18 to May 20), “13 Reasons Why” received an average minute audience of over 2.6 million U.S. viewers. In comparison, within the first three days of availability, all nine episodes of “Stranger Things 2” averaged more than 4 million viewers watching. And taking all 10 of its episodes into account, within the first three days, “The Crown” averaged nearly 1.3 million viewers.

As for binge-watching, “13 Reasons Why” viewers averaged over four episodes viewed during the first weekend. That’s actually higher than “Stranger Things” (around three) or “The Crown” (just about two and a half).

Keep in mind, Netflix continues to dismiss Nielsen’s numbers. “The data that Nielsen is reporting is not accurate, not even close, and does not reflect the viewing of these shows on Netflix,” a spokesperson said last year.

Nielsen has been working on its streaming ratings methodology for some time, but critics say its numbers are still underrepresented because it uses people meter boxes, the same ones that measure broadcast and cable ratings, for Netflix measurement.

That being said, here’s Nielsen’s breakdown of “13 Reasons Why” Season 2 viewership in the first three days:

“13 Reasons Why” ratingsNielsen
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