Bridgerton season 2 becomes Netflix's most streamed English language season of all time

If you thought Bridgerton season one was all the rage, the second season has left its predecessor in the dust, securing the top place on Netflix's most streamed English language seasons of all time.

The streaming platform released its analytics via its weekly Top 10 that stated as of April 17, Bridgerton season two had reached 627.11 million hours viewed since its March 25 launch. The first season had accumulated 625.49 million hours viewed in its first 28 days on Netflix — which is the metric the streaming service uses to calculate its Most Popular lists.

“After four weeks atop the English TV list, Lady Whistledown is most pleased to reveal that Bridgerton season two has ascended to the #1 spot on the Most Popular list with 627.11 million hours viewed, ahead of Bridgerton season one in second place,” Netflix said in its weekly ranking report, per Variety. “This marks the first ever series to hold both the first and second place on a Most Popular list. This week, season two clocked 66.61 million hours viewed and appeared in the Top 10 in 88 countries.”

This tally may have allowed Bridgerton to climb to the top for English language TV series but still left it far behind the winner for non-English language series Squid Game, which scored 1.65 billion hours watched in its first 28 days.

Created by Chris Van Dusen and produced by Shonda Rhimes, the hit show is based on Julia Quinn’s Regency-era eight-novel series that explores the stories of each Bridgerton sibling and the social life of England's nobility. Quinn's novel The Viscount Who Loved Me served as inspiration for season two of the Shondaland production.

The latest season shifted focus from the leading couple in season one, Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page), to Daphne’s eldest brother Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and his romantic interest Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley). Though viewers generally loved the second season, the Sharma family was heavily criticised for being less about South Asian representation and more about token inclusion.

Bridgerton has already been renewed for third and fourth seasons at Netflix, with the streaming service confirming plans to cover more storylines from Julia Quinn’s romance novel series. Executive producer of the show, Shonda Rhimes, told Variety that the show "will go on for years". “There are eight Bridgerton siblings, and as far as I’m concerned, there are eight Bridgerton seasons, and maybe more,” she said.