Prime Video’s Reacher Season 2 dominated the Nielsen streaming charts for its premiere week, toppling The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s first season debut.
Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher in Reacher (2023), Prime Video
Nielsen reported that the three episode debut of Reacher racked up 1.687 billion total minutes viewed. It took the top spot for original streaming series besting Netflix’s The Crown, My Life with the Walter Boys, Obliterated, and Squid Game: The Challenge.
It also best School Spirits, Virgin River, Yu Yu Hakusho, World War II: From the Frontlines, and Sweet Home.
Nielsen Top 10 Originals chart for the Week of December 11, 2023 to December 17, 2023.
While Reacher was the top viewed original TV series, it was best by Netflix’s Leave The World Behind, which raked up 1.951 billion minutes.
Nielsen Top 10 Overall chart for the Week of December 11, 2023 to December 17, 2023.
Not only did Reacher dominate the Nielsen charts, but TV Line also reports that the audience was “58% male, and two-thirds of its viewers are age 50+.”
The show has clearly grown its audience in its second season as well. The first season amassed 1.8 billion minutes viewed when it debuted on Prime Video in its first week. However, it dropped all of its 8 episodes in its first week.
Obviously, the show did over 1.6 billion minutes with just three episodes of Season 2 premiering.
Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher in Reacher (2023), Prime Video
As noted by Twitter user NowItsKnown on X, Reacher did more than 400 million more minutes than The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s 2-episode premiere back in September 2022.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power two-episode debut in September 2022 only racked up 1.253 billion minutes viewed.
11-17 Dec 23 Nielsen Streaming Ratings
1⃣ #LeaveTheWorldBehind retains Top Spot.
2⃣ #Reacher (S2) premiere breaks 1Bil Mins DESTROYING all #RingsOfPower numbers, including its 2 episode debut.
8⃣ #Bluey reigns over #DisneyPlus.@wdwpro1 @JonasJCampbell @KinelRyan @jftrent @Kneon pic.twitter.com/4z6kRuAi1k— MAC (@NowItsKnown) January 12, 2024
These Nielsen ratings appear to confirm earlier reporting from Deadline’s Katie Campione who claimed the Season 2 premiere “surpassed the entire Season 1 audience by 50% in the first three days on the streamer.”
She also noted the series was the best performing program “in terms of total viewers” on Prime Video for all of 2023. It’s unclear what total viewership was for the show as Prime Video does not release that information and Nielsen only reports minutes viewed for streaming.
Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher in Reacher (2023), Prime Video
Samba TV also reported the series was watched by 1.3 million U.S. households in its premiere. They noted it was “21% more viewership than came in for the S1 premiere.”
Season 2 of #Reacher rolled out on #AmazonPrimeVideo over the weekend to a massive 1.3M US households tuning in to watch #AlanRitchson back in action. That’s 21% more viewership than came in for the S1 premiere! #SambaTVInsights #ReacherS2 #ReacherIsBack pic.twitter.com/8PhXdcXq8U
— Samba TV (@samba_tv) December 20, 2023
As with Nielsen the series was the second most watched program for the week of December 11th through December 17th.
The latest #SambaTVWeeklyWrap is out and it shows that holiday movies have been knocked out of the top five! Leading off at #1 is the star-studded #LeaveTheWorldBehind, followed by #Reacher in 2nd, #Barbie📷 in 3rd, #mylifewiththewalterboys in 4th, and #SuperMarioBros in 5th.… pic.twitter.com/Tzp5f0YHj4
— Samba TV (@samba_tv) December 22, 2023
Reacher would take the top spot on Samba TV’s charts for the next two weeks. It most recently fell to third with the release of the sixth episode behind Netflix’s Fool Me Once and The Equalizer 3.
The #SambaTVWeeklyWrap is out and we’ve got a few surprises in there. Let’s dig in:#Netflix‘s new #FoolMeOnce made its debut at #1 this week, followed by #TheEqualizer3 with #DenzelWashington, knocking #AmazonPrimeVideo‘s #Reacher into 3rd. Coming in 4th was the… pic.twitter.com/7m7IWTgBdx
— Samba TV (@samba_tv) January 11, 2024
Reacher is already filming a third season with actor Alan Ritchson announcing, “You’re on the set of Season 3 of Reacher right now. We’re officially under way.”
What do you make of Reacher’s season two performance?
Sometimes it’s more believable to have a man play the male character.