Adolescencehas hit a major streaming milestone. Netflix’s popular British limited series, which was created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, consists of four episodes, each of which features one continuous take telling the ongoing story of Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), a 13-year-old boy who is the prime suspect in the murder of his classmate Katie Leonard (Emilia Holliday). TheAdolescencecastalso includes Graham, Ashley Walters, Faye Marsay, Mark Stanley, and Christine Tremarco.
Adolescencehas continued to attract viewers more than a full month after its premiere, and it has now garnered 130.2 million views and a total of 499 million viewing hours, maintaining its place at No. 3 on theNetflixchart of their most-watched English-language series of all time. This makes itthe streamer’s fourth show to ever pass the 130 million milestone, and the fifth season of any show overall to do so.
The only other seasons to pass that milestone areStranger Thingsseason 4 (140.7 million viewers),Squid Gameseason 2 (192.6 million),Wednesdayseason 1 (252.1 million), andSquid Gameseason 1 (265.2 million). The South Korean seriesSquid Gameis the only show to have two seasons pass that milestone.
What This Means For Adolescence
This Is A Rare Achievement
Even though Netflix has many other flagship series that have broken viewership records, by passing the 130 million milestone, theAdolescencelimited serieshas entered rarefied air. Very few series have even come close to hitting that milestone, and in factonly four other series have even breached the 100 million milestone, namelyMonster,Bridgerton,The Queen’s Gambit, andMoney Heist. Below, see a breakdown of the performance of the other seven shows on the Top 10 English-language series chart, three of which did not hit the 100 million milestone:
#4
115.6 million
#5
113.3 million
#6
112.8 million
#7
106 million
#8
98.2 million
#9
#10
Stranger Thingsseason 3
94.8 million
It seems probable that, eventually,other seasons will follow in the footsteps ofAdolescenceand pass the 130 million milestone. This is entirely likely, especially because the streamer has set follow-up seasons to quite a few of the titles that have already done so. This includesWednesdayseason 2,Squid Gameseason 3, andStranger Thingsseason 5, though the latter two seasons will end their respective series. However, in spite of this competition, the new series seems likely to remain in the overall Top 10 for quite some time after hitting this milestone.
Our Take On The Adolescence Streaming Record
It May Not Spur Season 2 Into Existence
In spite of the massive streaming viewership ofAdolescence, the show’s future remains murky. While production company Plan B Entertainment is in talks with director Philip Barantini about a follow-up that could potentially tell a new story in an anthology format, a proper season 2 of the series is more or less impossible.It seems more likely that the success of the show will instead inspire series that are similarrather than ones that take place in the same universe.
