'Bird Box' Breaks Viewership Record For Netflix In One Week

The post-apocalyptic thriller had more than 45 million accounts watching in just one week, making it the fastest Netflix original film to reach this milestone.

Took off my blindfold this morning to discover that 45,037,125 Netflix accounts have already watched Bird Box — best first 7 days ever for a Netflix film! pic.twitter.com/uorU3cSzHR

— Netflix Film (@NetflixFilm) December 28, 2018

Then again, Netflix has always been known for being secretive with their viewership numbers, so this revelation was a pleasant surprise.

Besides hardly ever revealing their official ratings, it is also difficult to gauge what the data actually means because 45 million accounts obviously doesn't translate to exactly 45 million people because one account could be one person or a whole family.

But one thing is for sure, Netflix told The Verge, one viewcount is considered legit only when it surparsses 70 per cent of the total running time, including the credits. Multiple views or viewers do not apply because it is only counted as one.

So, the success of Bird Box is commendable considering that Netflix officially has more than 137 million subscribers worldwide as of October last year.

For those of you who haven't caught up, Bird Box tells the story of a post-apocalyptic world where it is not safe to be able to see. Hence all the blindfold memes and gifs you've been seeing in the past week.

Several years after an ominous unseen presence drives most people to kill themselves, a mother, played by Sandra Bullock, and her two children have to struggle to survive.