'Murder Mystery' May Have Set A Netflix Viewing Record

Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston's Netflix, Inc. NFLX flick "Murder Mystery" may have broken viewing records, depending on how one analyzes the metrics.

What Happened

Netflix said in a tweet Tuesday close to 30.9 million households tuned in to watch a New York cop (Sandler) and his wife (Anniston) being framed for murder of a European billionaire. More than 13 million accounts in the U.S. and Canada watched the film within the first three days of its launch with another 17.5 million worldwide viewers also tuning in.

According to PopSugar, data from Nielsen suggests more than 18 million viewers watched the Toronto Raptors defeat the Golden State Warriors to take home the NBA championship.

Why It's Important

There is no one standard definition as what counts as a "view" in the media industry, according to PopSugar. For example, Nielsen calculates viewership through an "average audience" metric which factors in the likelihood more viewers tuned in to watch the final moments of the game as opposed to those who watched the beginning.

A viewer who got bored with "Murder Mystery" and didn't watch the last 30 minutes is still counted as a "view." Netflix calculates a "view" as any user who watched at least the first 70% of a program.

I have a hard time believing that a Sandler film in which only a handful of people I know watched was more popular than Game of Thrones.

Then again, nobody I knew voted for Nixon.

— Peter Labuza (@labuzamovies) June 18, 2019

The Hollywood Reporter's Alex Weprin chimed in and said it's likely Netflix wants "big stars to work with them" and big stars "want to be in stuff people see." as such, Netflix is now "talking numbers, ambiguous as they may be."

Netflix stock closed Wednesday higher by 1.79% at $363.52 per share.

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