Over 70 Million People Watched The Witcher In First Four Weeks

In case you missed the memo, The Witcher is kind of a big deal right now.

Netflix’s hit new show, which stars Henry Cavill as the titular monster hunter Geralt of Rivia, has stolen the hearts and minds of fans since its debut last year. So successful has showrunner Lauren Hissrich’s inaugural first season turned out to be, in fact, that the live-action adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s books is now on course to be the streaming site’s most lucrative first season ever. Breaking the good news via a recent shareholders meeting, the company revealed that, in the first four weeks of release, 76 million “member households” tuned in to join Geralt on his quest to find Ciri.

Echoing recent comments from The Witcher composers Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli, Netflix admits that it, too, has been taken aback by the series’ immediate influence on pop culture, having contributed to a massive rise in sales for both Sapkowski’s source material and CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher 3. And let’s not forget, either, the viral musical hit that is “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher.”

See below for the full statement:

During December, we also launched The Witcher, which is tracking to be our biggest season one TV series ever. Through its first four weeks of release, 76m member households chose to watch this action-packed fantasy, starring Henry Cavill. As a testament to how our hit content can penetrate the global zeitgeist and influence popular culture, the show’s launch drove up sales of The Witcher books and games around the world, and spawned a viral musical hit.

An unquestionably successful debut, then, but it’s worth noting how Netflix measures viewership. In order to account for user error, the site only records those that partake in a single program for more than 2 minutes as having ‘watched’ any given content. It’s unlikely, then, that the aforementioned 76 million figure translates to mean that many people have watched the entirety of season 1, though the reality is largely irrelevant.

The Witcher is here to stay regardless, and we can’t wait to see Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer and Jaskier’s adventures continue next year.