Outer Banks and The Mandalorian were the most-watched streaming shows in March, according to Nielsen.
The company released its monthly streaming report, The Gauge, on Tuesday, which reported that viewers watched 4.6B minutes of Outer Banks following the release of Season 3 in February — more than any other streaming program. Also on Netflix, You tallied 3.6B viewing minutes for the month. As always, Nielsen didn’t break down viewing by season.
Streaming on Netflix accounted for about 7.3% of total TV usage in March, which was comparable to February. Disney+ also had a comparable share of TV usage vs. February (1.8%), earning the second most-viewed series of the month. The Mandalorian drew more than 3.6B viewing minutes.
Also on the streaming front, Pluto TV saw the largest increase in usage at 4.6%, which bumped its total share to 0.8% of TV. Peacock usage climbed to 3.1%, reaching a platform-high of 1.1% of total TV usage.
Streaming viewership was down overall in March, but it still finished the month with the largest share of TV usage at 34.1%.
In fact, TV usage was down 2% overall in March, which is fairly in line with seasonal trends, according to Nielsen. Total TV usage dropped 4.6% over the same period last year. Cable was the only category to see an increase in viewership, which shouldn’t be surprising considering the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament aired throughout the month. It was the first time since August that cable had seen a monthly uptick in viewing.
Viewership for this year’s March Madness, especially the finals, was down slightly compared to last year. That could explain why, despite the uptick in cable usage, the category still saw a 13.7% decrease in usage compared to the same time last year.
Broadcast made up 23.3% of TV usage in March, which is a 4.4% decrease from February and about 4% down from the year prior. The Oscars actually drove a 153% increase in the awards/ceremonies genre to account for a little more than 1% of viewing in the broadcast category. Nielsen credits the “general drama genre” for the largest share of broadcast viewing at 30.5%.
See the chart below for more:
