You Season 5 Breaks Unfortunate Netflix Viewership Record For The Show During Premiere Week

You season 5 has hit a viewership low for the series. Based on the Caroline Kepnes novel series of the same name, the thriller show (which began its run on Lifetime before being picked up by Netflix for season 2 and beyond) stars Penn Badgley as Joe Godldberg, who stalks various women and has a tendency to murder anyone who gets in his way. The newly released You season 5, which is set to end the series, sees the show featuring New York City as its core setting for the first time since season 1.

Netflix has now calculated their most-watched English language series for the week of April 21 through April 27. You season 5 has landed at No. 1 on the chart with 10.1 million viewers amassing a total of 85.2 million viewing hours. It is in the Top 10 in 88 territories around the world and No. 1 in 37 of them, including Martinique, Austria, Italy, Germany, Egypt, Kenya, India, Pakistan, and Lebanon.

Notably, many predominately English-speaking territories that had it in their Top 10 did not have it at No. 1, including Australia (where it was No. 3 behind Ransom Canyon and Special Ops: Lioness), the United Kingdom (where Black Work was No. 1), and the United States (where it fell behind week 2 of Ransom Canyon). Additionally, this marks the least-watched Netflix premiere week for a season of the show in terms of viewing hours since the streamer started publicly releasing viewership numbers in early 2021.

What This Means For You Season 5

Seasons 3 & 4 Far Outpaced It

While the specific viewing hour data from Netflix only extends back to the premiere of season 3, it seems highly likely that season 2 (the first to debut on the platform) also exceeded 10.1 million viewing hours. By the end of its first month on the platform, it was revealed that season 2 had amassed 54 million viewers, which is more than five times the current season’s premiere week viewership. Below, see how the viewing hours compare for the previous You seasons that were measured on that scale:

Season	Premiere Week Viewing Hours
You season 3	133.1 million
You season 4	92.1 million
You season 5	85.2 million

It is also important to note that You season 4 was split up into two parts with five episodes each, which debuted exactly one month apart in 2023. While the second part had lower viewership during its premiere week (75.8 million), the first part managed to outdo season 5 in spite of the fact that it had half of the runtime, meaning that its viewership was proportionally much higher than the new season, which runs for 10 full episodes.

Our Take On The You Season 5 Debut

Netflix Was Probably The Right Time To End The Series

While the show still has enough staying power to debut at No. 1, it is clear that it is being hit by diminishing returns. These numbers prove that it was probably the right time for Netflix to end the series, even though it could potentially have continued to top the chart for a few seasons to come. With the You ending coming when it did, the show can quit while it is ahead and prevent itself from spinning its wheels unnecessarily as viewership continues to diminish.

Source: Netflix