Nielsen Streaming Ratings: Netflix’s ‘Virgin River’ Maintains the No. 1 Spot

(Image credit: Netflix)

For the second consecutive week Netflix’s Virgin River was the most watched program on the major U.S. SVOD services, attracting 1.270 billion viewing minutes during the week of July 19-25, according to Nielsen.

Virgin River was the only SVOD program to garner over one billion viewing minutes for the week ending July 25.

While Virgin River’s 30-episodes maintained the top SVOD slot, the drama was down approximately 40% viewing minutes week over week, according to Nielsen.

Netflix’s Manifest maintained its No. 2 spot week over week. The 29 first- and second-season episodes of the series from NBC garnered 939 million viewing minutes. July 19-25 marks the first period in six weeks that the supernatural series netted less than one billion viewing minutes. Manifest, a Warner Bros. TV series cancelled by NBC but close to Season 4 renewal by Netflix, debuted on the top streaming service June 10.

Nielsen Weekly Streaming Rankings July 19-25 — (Image credit: Nielsen)

Coming in at No. 6 was Netflix’s original YA series Never Have I Ever with 567 million viewing minutes. The second season of coming-of-age comedy debuted on the streaming service July 15. While the show, about Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), a first-generation Indian-American girl growing up in Southern California, didn’t make the top 10 list during the week of July 18, the two-season, 20 episode series gained 87 million viewing minutes week over week.

The first season of Never Have I Ever premiered on Netflix in late April 2020 and quickly became a quarantine streaming favorite. In July, Netflix reported that 40 million households tuned in to watch the original series from co-creators Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher. On Thursday, Netflix renewed the comedy for a third season.

Netflix’s original series Atypical, which premiered on July 9, tallied 422 million viewing minutes, placing it in the No. 9 spot. The 38-episode series about a 19-year-old on the autism spectrum dropped three spots week over week. The series features Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Rapaport and Brigette Lundy-Paine.

Netflix ended its original Downton Abbey licensing contract with PBS all the way back in February 2013. But on June 1, all six seasons and 50 episodes of the PBS period drama were back up on the top SVOD.

Downton Abbey, about the noble Crawley family, is set in early 20th century England and created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. The series ran between 2010 and 2015 and also featured a movie spin-off in 2019.

Nielsen Weekly Streaming Rankings - Acquired Series July 19-25 — (Image credit: Nielsen)

Notably Disney Plus’ “Marvel Cinematic Universe” series, Loki, fell off the top 10 SVOD chart after garnering 1.011 billion viewing minutes during the week ending July 18. The sixth and final episode streamed on July 14. During the week of July 19, Loki took in 386 million viewing minutes--down by a dramatic 625 million viewing minutes week over week.