Netflix released viewing data for a number of its Original movies and series, revealing Sweet Tooth Season 1 was the most-watched show that premiered during the second quarter of 2021.
The streamer's adaptation of Vertigo's comic book property has been viewed by 60 million Netflix accounts so far, confirmed The Hollywood Reporter. That's just shy of the 62 million views The Queen's Gambit amassed in 2020, making it Netflix's most-watched miniseries at the time. Sweet Tooth's Netflix viewership was also bigger than those for Shadow and Bone Season 1 and Lupin Part Two, which racked up, respectively, 55 million and 54 million views in their first four weeks of release.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings unveiled the streamer's current method for measuring viewership during a a quarterly earnings report to investors in January 2020. Instead of counting viewers watching at least 70% of a movie or series as a "view," Netflix now counts a full "view" as any viewer who watched two or more minutes of a program. As such, the number of accounts that watched Sweet Tooth Season 1 in its entirety is most likely lower than the 60 million figure the company reported.
Developed by Jim Mickle, Sweet Tooth adapts Jeff Lemire's comic book series about Gus, a young, inexperienced half-human, half-deer boy who journeys through a dangerous post-apocalyptic world where human/animal hybrids are feared and hunted by those who believe they may've been responsible for the terrible pandemic that laid ruin to the world ten years earlier. Season 1 was well-reviewed by critics and maintains a 98% Fresh Score on Rotten Tomatoes, with its average rating coming in 7.96/10. CBR's Kevin Melrose noted the show is not as dark as its source material and its "messages of hope and resilience, even in the darkest moments, is perfectly timed, giving us a buoyant fable for an uncertain age. "
While Netflix has already ordered Shadow & Bone Season 2, the company has yet to announce whether Sweet Tooth will return for a second installment. Lemire's comic books ran for 40 issues from 2009-2013 before continuing with Sweet Tooth: The Return, a six-part sequel miniseries Lemire published starting in November 2020. However, were Sweet Tooth Season 2 to happen, it's unclear if it would borrow elements from The Return -- which is set 300 years after its predecessor -- or take its story in a different direction.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter