In case you've missed our previous posts, our web TV chart is powered by Visible Measures and their Viral Reach Database and looks at made-for-web shows with the highest grossing view count across the entire series.
This is our third installation of the chart, and this month we're seeing more spice than ever, complete with three shows making their debut on the chart, and a leader board that's constantly in flux.
The Chart: October 2009
Rank
Last Month's Rank
Title
Studio
Genre
True Reach View Count
% Change in Views
Sample Episode
1
New
Happy Tree Friends
MondoMedia
Animation
19,845,332
New
[img src="/wp-content/themes/v5/img/visible-measures/10-09/video_1.png" caption="" credit="" alt="happy tree friends"]Happy Tree Friends has a strong online adult following, and those fans clearly tuned in to the web-based flash cartoon series in droves.
Don't be fooled by the show's misleading name; Happy Tree Friends is not meant for kids. In fact, it's extremely violent and echoes content from The Simpsons' cartoon within a cartoon, The Itchy & Scratchy Show. It's practically the antithesis of Fred in every possible way, and it indicates that adult audiences are just as fanatic about web TV as their younger counterparts.
It's also interesting to note that the more than 19 million video views of Happy Tree Friends were distributed across the entire series, indicating that viewers watch multiple episodes per sitting.
Just humor us
The POV sketch comedy series is certainly geared towards college-aged viewers with a penchant for awkward humor and sex jokes. We're guessing all of you sorority sisters and fraternity brothers would rather tune in to new age sex-ed than study for those chemistry exams.
Also worthy of note is that Jake & Amir pushed a bunch of new content in October, resulting in a 42% jump in video views across the entire series for the month. Hardly Working, however, dropped off by 19%, but is still holding on to the last spot on the chart.
Fading fast?
Every web TV series on September's chart, other than Smosh and Jake & Amir, saw pretty big drop offs in terms of video views. Fred was not only displaced as the undisputed champion, but the show even dipped down below Smosh, amassing 26% fewer views than the previous month.
The Station had the biggest drop off for the month, although it's still holding strong in the #4 spot with nearly 8.5 million views. The show saw a 43% decline in views, which can possibly be attributed to the fact that they released a new piece late in the month on zombies, and it didn't perform as well as their standard fare. The Station tends to perform better when they stick to the hot chick formula, as evidenced by previous episodes like "Sexy Chick" and "Girls Gone Wild."
Interestingly enough, total views across the top 10 web series fell to 83 million views, that's down 10 million views from September's chart. It's too early to attribute the decline to anything more specific than an October lull, or variations in production schedules, so we'll report back in December when we have November's data. Stay tuned.