Michael Bay’s 5-Season Sci-Fi Series Officially Witnesses “The Netflix Effect” With 1.2 Billion Minutes Watched
Michael Bay's naval sci-fi drama *The Last Ship* has become Netflix's most-watched acquired series after its full five-season run landed on the streamer, racking up 1.2 billion minutes viewed in a single week. The result is the latest example of "the Netflix effect", whereby shows that originally aired on traditional networks find a far larger audience once added to the streaming platform, echoing earlier cases such as *Breaking Bad*.
The figures come from Nielsen's streaming report, which is published roughly a month in arrears and covers the week of 22–28 June. In the same period, Harlan Coben thriller *I Will Find You*, starring Sam Worthington and Britt Lower, surged past 2.4 billion minutes in its second weekend and is nearing Netflix's all-time top 10 for English-language series, while *Love Island USA* posted its best-ever week with almost 2 billion minutes watched. *The Last Ship*, which originally ran on TNT from 2014 to 2018, topped the separate chart for acquired series.
- *The Last Ship* hit 1.2bn minutes watched, topping Netflix's acquired series chart.
- Nielsen data covers 22–28 June; *I Will Find You* passed 2.4bn minutes.
- *Love Island USA* logged its best-ever week with nearly 2bn minutes watched.