The Boys has broken several Nielsen streaming records in a single week. The Prime Video superhero show is based on the satirical Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson comics of the same name and features an ensemble cast that includes Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Jensen Ackles, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The upcoming The Boys season 5 is set to be the final season of the franchise’s flagship series.
Per Deadline, Nielsen has reported its streaming numbers for the week of July 15 through 21, which is the week that Prime Video premiered the Boys season 4 finale. The chart has shown the subversive superhero show breaking a number of major records. In addition to taking No. 1 on the overall streaming chart for the first time with upwards of 1.3 billion minutes viewed, it has become the Prime Video show with the most weeks over a billion minutes (at eight weeks) and the most cumulative weeks in the streaming Top 10 (with 20 weeks).
These Ratings Show The Boys Franchise Should Keep Going Strong
The Show’s Spinoffs Have A Solid Viewership Foundation
The fact that the show’s ratings keep rising even as it prepares to go off the air shows that there is a good foundation for the overall franchise to maintain strong viewership even as the flagship series reaches its conclusion. This is good news for the multitude of upcoming The Boys spinoffs, which are following several spinoffs that have already been made, including the animated spinoff Diabolical and the live-action show Gen V, which is set to return for season 2 in 2025.
There are other spinoffs that are already in development at the time of writing, including The Boys: Mexico, from frequent collaborators Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal. At Comic-Con 2024, it was also announced that a prequel spinoff titled Vought Rising is in the works, following the characters of Soldier Boy (Ackles) and Stormfront (Aya Cash) in the 1950s. While it remains to be seen if and when either project comes to fruition, both can potentially carry on the legacy of the flagship show after it airs its series finale.
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Ultimately, the end of the flagship show may end up being the best of both worlds. The Boys’ main cast can disperse and pursue other opportunities, maintaining or raising their profiles while still potentially returning for occasional cameos in any ongoing spinoff properties. Thus, their careers would continue to buoy the franchise and vice versa, helping the ratings continue to be as consistent as possible for years to come.
