Bridgerton Season 2 Just Set A New Record For Netflix
In December of 2020, Netflix released "Bridgerton" — the Regency era romantic drama series created by Chris Van Dusen and produced by "Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes — to instant acclaim and popularity. Season 1 introduced the show's set of characters, including the Bridgerton family, whose eight siblings would each be the focus of a season. The first season focused on Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) as she fell in love with Simon Basset (Regé-Jean Page), the Duke of Hastings who previously declared he would never marry. As reported by Deadline, it was watched by 82 million households globally within a month of its release, becoming Netflix's most popular series ever at the time (it was later one-upped by "Squid Game"). Naturally, Season 2 was inevitable — as were Seasons 3 and 4, which have already been renewed (via Variety).
Season 2 of "Bridgerton" was released on March 25, 2022. The sophomore season follows the eldest of the Bridgerton siblings, Anthony (Jonathan Bailey), who, determined to marry, sets his sights on Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran) — only to find himself falling for her sister, Kate (Simone Ashley) instead. It's been about a week and a half since the second season was released, which means that fans have had plenty of time to binge the beloved show, and new fans have had plenty of time to catch up on the first season to tune in for the second. So what does this mean for the show's ratings on the streaming service?
Well, to no one's surprise, "Bridgerton" has already broken records.
Bridgerton Season 2 is Netflix's biggest English-language show
As reported by Deadline, "Bridgerton" Season 2 has been watched for a whopping 251.7 million hours over the course of just seven days. This adds onto the 193 million hours that were watched in the first opening weekend, after its March 25 premiere. With these massive numbers for the season, "Bridgerton" becomes the most-watched English-language series for Netflix.
Of course, the term "English-language" is important here — as mentioned above, "Squid Game" currently holds the record for being the most-watched series of the streamer overall. The Korean survival drama series amassed 448.7 million hours watched in its first week on Netflix, before rising to 571.8 million hours in its second week on the streaming service.
Prior to the Season 2 premiere, the show's creator Chris Van Dusen discussed how the first season's massive success affected Season 2. Van Dusen told Entertainment Weekly, "Our profile going into the second season was really high. Season 2 was a very different thing from creating and producing and writing the first season of an unknown show. There were a lot more insights and opinions for me to wade through, and staying true to my original creative vision became that much more challenging."
Based on the numbers, it seems that fans were content with what Van Dusen and the rest of the creative team were able to do with Season 2, despite having a very successful reputation to live up to. We can't wait to see how the "Bridgerton" success continues with Seasons 3 and 4.