Fallout is the second most watched series in the history of Prime Video. In its first 16 days on the content platform, the video game adaptation has accumulated 65 million viewers. Not bad at all, considering that it is only surpassed by The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which is based on one of the most successful intellectual properties in the history of recent audiovisuals and, in addition, is the most expensive series in the history. But, once this achievement is recognized, a little caution and above all skepticism in the face of the data is called for.
The Amazon platform reports, for example, that 60% of the recorded audience comes from outside the United States. Therefore, it is not exactly a local success but in countries like the United Kingdom, France and Brazil it has worked especially well. They also claim that it is the most watched series among audiences aged 18 to 34, ahead of the adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien but also titles like The Boys, Generation V or The Summer I Fell in Love.
However, it is worth highlighting that these audiences have been cooked by the platform itself: the metric to reach those 65 million viewers has not been reported. Is it the number of users who have started the pilot episode of Fallout and watched a minimum of 2 minutes? Of those who have seen 70% of the first chapter or the entire chapter? And how many viewers are finishing the series?
Not only do we not have access to the metrics used (or the assurance that this data has been audited by third parties) but there is also no access from the media to the viewing data of the rest of the titles. Therefore, it is impossible to make comparisons between Fallout, released on April 10, and other titles such as The Rings of Power.
Let us remember that, according to a report published by The Hollywood Reporter, the series set in Middle Earth did not have the directors especially happy: only 37% of Americans who started the prequel to The Lord of the Rings got to see the first season complete.
So while there isn’t enough data provided to give you a global perspective, any Fallout consumer data, no matter how good it is (and no matter how good it may be), should be taken with a grain of salt.
In comparison, Netflix historically always used convenient metrics until its latest strategy of, after winning the streaming battle, providing consumption data for all the titles in its catalog for a semester.
At first, it counted as viewers anyone who had seen 70% of a movie or the first episode of a series, and then counted all users who watched 2 minutes of a title and, later, reported the viewing hours of the movies. most viewed titles both in English and other languages.
