Harry and Meghan breaks Netflix record in less than a week on streaming service

Duke and Duchess’ documentary series has racked up millions of hours of views in less than a week of being on the streaming platform

Harry and Meghan has set a new record for documentary series on Netflix in just its first four days on the platform.

In data released by the streaming service on Tuesday (13 December), it was revealed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s factual programme has become the platform’s most-watched documentary series in its first week.

The first three episodes landed on Thursday 8 December, with the final three episodes set to air on Thursday 15 December.

In less than a week of being available, Harry and Meghan has racked up 81.55 million viewing hours.

As well as this, more than 28 million households worldwide have pressed play on some part of the series.

Harry and Meghan also took the number two position in the weekly chart for the streaming platform. The most watched title for the week was the Addams Family-branded comedy-drama, Wednesday, headed up by Jenna Ortega.

It’s expected that the second release of Harry and Meghan episodes will mean another surge in popularity for the programme.

The first three episodes saw the couple commenting on topics such as racism in the UK, Princess Diana, their childhoods and the start of their romantic life.

Harry and Meghan (Netflix)

In the trailer for the forthcoming episodes, released on Monday (12 December), Harry hinted at preferential treatment for his brother, William, the Prince of Wales.

“They were happy to lie to protect my brother,” he can be heard saying in the short clip. Later, Meghan can be seen saying: “I wasn’t being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves,” while Harry refers to what he calls “institutional gaslighting”.

All episodes are directed by the Oscar-winning filmmaker, Liz Garbus.

Elsewhere, Wednesday was revealed to have stormed past Dahmer to become the second-most watched English-language programme on Netflix, behind Stranger Things season four.