‘Cobra Kai’ Edges Out ‘Rings of Power’ For Top Streaming Show

Netflix’s Cobra Kai has claimed the top overall spot on the latest streaming charts.

According to The Nielsen SVOD charts for September 5-11, the Karate Kid sequel series’ fifth season drew 1.74 billion minutes of total viewing time across its 50 episodes, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Amazon Prime‘s  The Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power came in at just over 1.2 billion minutes, a slightly lower number from the 1.25 billion for its premiere week.

One issue with the way Nielsen tallies these numbers is that they only cover the viewings that people watch on TV sets. With the popularity of mobile viewing, the ratings for the shows watched on cell phones and computers aren’t accounted for. The ratings also only cover audiences in the United States, not those in other countries, and currently only include the streamers Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, and Prime Video.

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For The Lord Of The Rings; The Rings Of Power, Nielsen reports that the three available episodes at the time had fairly even viewership, with 41 percent of total time — about 493 million minutes — going to Episode 3, which debuted September 9, and the remainder to the prior two episodes.

Cobra Kai follows original Karate Kid characters Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and rival Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) as they raise kids of their own, who are eager to learn the art of karate at the resurrected Cobra Kai dojo. The current season is not only winning viewers over in terms of episode views, but the series also has a 100 percent critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 92 percent audience score. Meanwhile, with an 85 percent critic rating and a 38 percent audience score, The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power not only has to catch up in views but also in viewer sentiment.

Cobra Kai, Seasons 1-5, Streaming now, Netflix

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Fridays, Prime Video