Nielsen backs up Netflix's big 'Bird Box' viewer claims with seriously impressive data

It looks like Bird Box is the massive hit that Netflix says it is.

Nielsen, which measures viewer ratings of television shows and now some streaming services, backed up Netflix's bold claims about Bird Box's popularity, Variety reported Tuesday. Within the first seven days of its release on Netflix, Nielsen reports that it was watched by 26 million viewers in the U.S. alone.

Netflix reported that in that seven day span, Bird Box had been viewed by 45 million accounts around the globe. Unfortunately Nielsen only looks at U.S. data for Netflix, so we can't fully confirm Netflix's claim, but it doesn't seem unreasonable given the U.S. numbers.

Nielsen gave a deeper look at the Bird Box data though, Variety reported, including showing how it stacks up against some other Netflix originals.

While Bird Box beat out 2017's fantasy/action movie Bright over its first week, Bird Box had a slower start with only 3.5 million viewers on its first day compared to Bright's 5.4 million. Bright ended the week reaching 20 million viewers, 6 million fewer than Bird Box.

Compared to some Netflix original series, Bird Box had a weaker start than staples like Orange Is the New Black and Stranger Things. The premiere of Orange Is the New Black Season 6 had an average of 5.3 million viewers over its first three days compared to Bird Box's 3.9 million average. Both of those pale in comparison to Stranger Things' premiere which hit an impressive 15.8 million viewers in its first three days compared to Bird Box's 11.7 million viewers.

Some of the success of Bird Box stems from its explosive popularity on social media, where people shared tons of memes and jokes around the movie as well as discussed the horror movie's mysterious monsters. Thanks to that word of mouth, Bird Box bloomed into quite a hit for Netflix.