Bridgerton’s slow-burn second season has proved a smash hit for Netflix, setting records for the streamer less than a week after it premiered.
The Regency era romance has already logged 193 million hours of viewing time worldwide, the most any English-language Netflix series has amassed in its first three days.
The impressive viewership numbers makes the bodice-ripping drama, starring Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley, the most-watched English-language TV series in its premiere weekend on Netflix.
The hit series is also in the top 10 in 92 of the 93 countries where rankings are tracked by Netflix, with Japan being the only outlier.
Based on Julia Quinn's period novel The Viscount Who Loved Me, the second season of the Shondaland romance focuses on the love life of Lord Anthony Bridgerton.
The viscount becomes tangled in a love triangle with sisters Kate Sharma and Edwina Sharma, shifting the show’s focus away from Anthony’s younger sister Daphne Bridgerton and her courtship with the Duke of Hastings, played by Regé-Jean Page, who has since left the series.
Netflix has already renewed Bridgerton, which is based on Quinn's eight-novel series, for a third and fourth season.
The new numbers mark the show’s success in spite of the second season pivot away from the numerous intimate scenes that created a buzz around the debut Bridgerton instalment.
Instead, showrunner Chris Van Dusen opted for a slow burn approach to the romance of the second season, insisting that the love scenes were always integral to the plot.
Prior to the Bridgerton season two premiere, Van Dusen said: “It was never about quantity for us. Our approach to intimacy on the show is the same as in season one - we use these scenes to push a story forward.
“We’ve never done a sex scene for the sake of doing a sex scene and I don’t think we ever will.”
Van Dusen remarked on the “off the chart” chemistry between Kate and Anthony, who move from enemies to lovers over the Netflix show’s eight episode arc.
He added: “There is so much sexiness in the looks across the room and the hands grazing and the fingers almost touching. You can really feel that build from episode to episode and you know that when we get there, the climax - if you will - is going to be well worth it.”
Van Dusen, who is leaving the show ahead of the upcoming third series to work on other projects, added: “Fans should expect a wild ride. We worked hard to bring everything that fans fell in love with about season one, into season two - and I think we did it.
“It’s emotional and romantic and sexy and scandalous.”
The first and second seasons of Bridgerton are available to stream on Netflix.
