‘Friends’ streams skyrocketed following Matthew Perry’s death
Records gathered via the Nielsen streaming charts have revealed which shows people are watching the most – with Friends being on the rise following the death of Matthew Perry.
The actor, best known for his role as Chandler Bing in the hit 1990s sitcom, died aged 54 at his home in Los Angeles on 28 October.
Since then, many fans of the series have been turning to the beloved series and streaming it on various platforms. The comedy, which originally ran from 1994 to 2004 gathered 583million minutes of viewing on Max between 23 and 29 October. This figure saw a 31 per cent increase from the previous week and the biggest total watch time for the series since February.
The final episode of Friends aired on 6 May 2004 and became the most-watched television episode of the 2000s, with around 52.5 million American viewers. The 10-season show was made available to stream on Netflix in the US in 2015, and in 2018 for UK Netflix users.
Also achieving high viewing figures were 2023 movies, No Hard Feelings, and Five Nights At Freddy’s. The former, which starred Jennifer Lawrence, amassed 1.13billion minutes of viewing on US Netflix, making up two thirds of the worldwide total, reported by Netflix, in its own rankings that week.
Five Nights At Freddy’s, which was simultaneously released in theatres, brought in 740million viewing minutes in its first three days on Peacock, making it the service’s best week for a movie since it joined the Nielsen streaming charts last year, and overtaking the streaming debuts for The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Halloween Ends.
Also dominant in the rankings for television series was Suits, with 997million viewing minutes, just falling short of its 18-week-long streak of a billion viewing minutes. The legal drama finished just ahead of Mike Flanagan’s latest horror series and final Netflix project, The Fall Of The House Of Usher, which gathered 944million minutes.
In other news, a sequel to Five Nights at Freddy’s is reportedly in development.
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Alex Berry
NME
