Wonder Woman 1984 was the streaming queen on Christmas week per Nielsen data

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

WarnerMedia and HBO Max have been talking about how well Wonder Woman 1984 did on their streaming platform but, like most streaming services, they didn't provide any hard numbers of significance. Despite their reluctance to release numbers, the Nielsen ratings service released the numbers they officially tracked for the film and Wonder Woman 1984, per Nielsen, racked up the most viewing time for a feature film to date via their tracking.

According to Nielsen, Wonder Woman 1984 became the biggest feature film in Nielsen's rankings and one of the biggest streaming titles of any kind since Nielsen launched its streaming measurement. For the week of December 21-27, HBO Max users spent 2.25 billion minutes watching Wonder Woman 1984. That's equivalent to about 14.9 million complete plays of the 151-minute movie. It's also 580 million minutes more than Nielsen's previously reported No. 1 for the week, Pixar's Soul. The Disney+ title was able to claim bragging rights early on but, based solely on numbers tracked by Nielsen, Wonder Woman 1984 was victorious during that viewing period. The film also pulled in the third-highest weekly total for any title since Nielsen began releasing weekly streaming numbers in August 2020.

HBO Max executive VP and general manager Andy Forssell, had this to say about the success of Wonder Woman 1984 during their earnings call this week:

"The impact of Wonder Woman 1984 on HBO Max cannot be understated. As was announced on Wednesday during our earnings and as this Nielsen data shows, it was a huge holiday gift to the consumer at a time when they wanted and needed it. This partnership with Warner Bros. of course continues throughout the year but it began with Wonder Woman’s arrival on Christmas Day to great success."

Nielsen does not yet track HBO Max streaming figures on a weekly basis, although it does count WarnerMedia as a client. The ratings service says that the release of viewing figures for Wonder Woman 1984 is a one-time-only view "as we work toward introducing the data externally." It seems like since WarnerMedia is a client, something was worked out to get these numbers released because HBO Max really had something to prove by showing that the release strategy for the film was successful on some level. As of this writing, Wonder Woman 1984 has grossed $37.7 million at the domestic box office and $148.4 million globally on a reported $200 million budget. Money was left on the table here in regards to the theatrical release but touting these HBO Max numbers flips the narrative a bit on the overall success of the film.

HBO Max currently has about 17.2 million "activated" users which means those are the users who have downloaded the HBO Max app and started or upgraded a subscription. WarnerMedia and parent company AT&T say 37.7 million people have access to the streaming platform, including those who subscribe to HBO through a cable or satellite provider. For comparison's sake, Netflix has nearly 74 million paid subscribers in the United States and Canada and 203.7 million worldwide while Disney+ had 86.8 million global subscribers as of December 2, 2020.

Are YOU surprised by Wonder Woman 1984's numbers? You can check out the full Nielsen ratings list below!

1 (nr). Wonder Woman 1984* (HBO Max), 2.25 billion minutes viewed
2 (nr). Soul* (Disney+), 1.67 billion.
3 (2). The Office (Netflix), 1.44 billion
4 (nr). Bridgerton* (Netflix), 1.2 billion
5 (nr). The Midnight Sky* (Netflix), 1.11 billion
6 (1). The Mandalorian* (Disney+), 1.02 billion
7 (nr). How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Netflix), 705 million
8 (3). The Crown* (Netflix), 700 million
9 (4). Grey's Anatomy (Netflix), 691 million
10 (nr). The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two* (Netflix), 660 million