As members of the #BeyHive can attest, the debut of Beyoncé’s Netflix special was a cultural event not to be missed.
On the heels of her new partnership with the streaming giant, allegedly worth $60 million, the iconic singer’s “Homecoming” documentary special helped the company reach new heights.
As reported by “Variety,” the Netflix exclusive hit an estimated 1.1 million U.S. viewers on its premiere date of April 17, garnering an average per-minute audience of 828,000. According to Nielsen, the audience was overwhelmingly young, Black and female.
While the documentary special didn’t hit as big of an audience as other recent high-profile Netflix originals, such as Bird Box (3.5 million viewers on release day) or Will Smith’s Bright (5.4 million viewers), the project did help the company reach a new audience milestone in the African-American demographic.
As reported, the film’s audience was 63% African-American on premiere day, and within the first seven days of its release, viewership was 55% African-American. These statistics mark the highest percentage out of any other original streaming series or film tracked by Nielsen to date. As reported, Bird Box came in second, attracting an audience that was 24% African-American.
Additionally, Beyoncé’s Netflix special also skewed heavily comprised of women viewers. Women made up 70% of the audience, drawing a larger number than Netflix’s “Orange Is The New Black” season 6 (66%), “House of Cards” season 6 (54%) and Bird Box (57%).
Age-wise, 43% of the audience was between ages 18-34, 12% were 2-17 and 27% adults ages 35-49. Variety also notes that Nielsen’s estimates do not provide a complete picture of viewership, as the content rating program can only track U.S. and internet-connected TVs (excluding mobile devices and computers).
Beyoncé, who is credited as executive producer, writer and director of the film, will be releasing two more specials as part of her Netflix deal.