324 Minutes
HBO's spooky hit posts big Nielsen numbers
HBO's new horror prequel IT: Welcome to Derry has arrived with a measurable thump. According to Nielsen data reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the series pulled in roughly 620 million minutes of viewing on television sets in the United States during the week of October 27 to November 2 — the show’s first full week on air. That makes it the best weekly performance by an HBO or HBO Max original in roughly five months, and a strong sign that appetite for prestige streaming horror remains high.
The 620 million minutes figure covers full-week viewing of episode one (released October 26) plus the initial hours of episode two (released the night of November 2). In the adapted-series category — which bundles HBO’s various adaptations across HBO and HBO Max — IT: Welcome to Derry landed seventh, and it ranked twelfth on Nielsen’s overall weekly list. That places it ahead of many new series debuts and marks HBO’s most notable original-series lift since late May, when The Last of Us season two opened at about 691 million minutes.
How it stacks up against the week’s top shows
Even with a strong debut, the new Pennywise-adjacent show wasn’t the top title of the week. The comedy-drama Nobody Wants This led all streaming content with 919 million minutes. Netflix’s The Witcher returned with season four and a new lead, Liam Hemsworth, earning 837 million minutes — a solid slot at number two, though that figure represents a 36% drop from the season three premiere’s 1.31 billion-minute opening in 2023. The Diplomat, which had previously been number one, slipped to fifth with 742 million minutes.
On the film side, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite dominated the TV-only numbers, topping the movie rankings for a second straight week with 825 million minutes. Meanwhile, The Perfect Neighbor experienced a steep fall — down about 77% to 236 million minutes. It’s important to note Nielsen’s methodology: these minutes count only viewership on television sets and reflect U.S. audiences; computer, tablet, and mobile viewing are excluded.
Context: nostalgia, adaptations, and casting shifts
IT: Welcome to Derry benefits from two powerful currents in contemporary streaming: nostalgia-driven franchises and cinematic TV production values. Studios keep investing in prequels and universe-building because those properties already carry built-in audiences and social-media buzz. Similarly, casting changes and star turnovers — like The Witcher’s switch to Liam Hemsworth — generate headlines that translate into sampling by curious viewers.
Critically, prequels walk a tightrope: they must satisfy long-time fans while offering fresh stories. Early audience response to Welcome to Derry has skewed enthusiastic on social platforms, where viewers praise the production design and reimagined scares, even as critics debate whether a prequel can match the thematic punch of Stephen King’s original novel and the 2017–2019 film duology.
"IT: Welcome to Derry taps into a familiar horror engine — nostalgia plus myth-building — and the early numbers reflect that formula working on a big scale," says film critic Anna Kovacs. "Whether the series sustains this momentum will depend on whether it deepens the lore rather than just rehashing familiar scares."
Fans and industry watchers will be watching the retention curve: did viewers sample episode one out of curiosity, or will they stick through multiple episodes? Nielsen’s TV-only snapshot gives a clear signal of mainstream living-room interest, but full streaming impact likely extends beyond the TV set into mobile and on-demand viewing patterns.
If IT: Welcome to Derry continues to deliver strong weekly minutes, it will reinforce HBO's strategy of treating streaming as a home for cinematic, franchise-ready series. For genre fans, it’s an early reminder that the haunted streets of Derry still have plenty of stories to tell.
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