Data: House of Cards binge viewing rockets

Netflix saw a huge spike in subscribers watching its drama House of Cards as its second season launched on Friday, according to broadband firm Procera Networks.

More than 16% of Netflix subs on one unspecified web service from an unspecified US cable provider watched at least one episode of the show on launch day (see graph below).

In comparison, only 2% of subs on a similar sized cable provider watched an episode of the first season last year over the entire launch weekend, Procera reported, adding this was a “massive” difference and that there had been a “huge uptick”.

Furthermore, 6% of Netflix subs watched at least an episode through an unnamed broadband network, which Procera termed as “very impressive” and showed the series had “international appeal”.

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Netflix doesn’t release viewing figures but Procera has found a way to extrapolate estimates by monitoring traffic on the platform.

Procera’s VP, global marketing Cam Cullen wrote in a blog post that the numbers recorded last week showed “clear signs of binge watching”.

However, no Netflix subs had watched any more than 11 episodes of the 13-part season by the close of Procera’s monitoring on the US platform.

Procera is unable to disclose details of individual clients but can share data accrued.

Netflix’s share price hit a record US$439.50 on the eve of House of Cards’ launch on Thursday, and was down slightly at US$435.51 a press time today.