Prison Break shoots to No. 1 show on streaming thanks to Netflix return

We're all familiar with the Netflix Bump. It's proven beneficial to a number of fan-favorite but ratings impaired series like Riverdale, Manifest, All American and more. The streaming service has even been able to boost up shows from beyond the grave, with long-canceled or recently ended series like Suits, New Amsterdam, and Young Sheldon. Well, another series has claimed the crown.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, for the week of Aug. 5-11, Prison Break ranks as the No. 1 show across all streaming services with a whopping 1.6 billion viewing minutes via Nielsen streaming content ratings. For comparison's sake, Max's House of the Dragon, which has fewer episodes but ended its second season on Aug. 4, came in fifth that week with 935 million minutes viewed.

Prison Break returned to Netflix with all five seasons in late July 2024, and the series has clearly dominated the streaming viewership charts. In addition to becoming available to stream on Netflix on July 29, all five seasons also remain available to stream on Hulu, which contributes to the overall streaming minutes number measured by Nielsen and reported by THR.

Prison Break surges after returning to Netflix

Once the series dropped on Netflix, fans instantly began watching or, more likely, rewatching. Prison Break became a constant fixture on Netflix's daily top 10 most popular shows ranking. The Fox drama held strong for quite a while, but the arrival of over a dozen shows hailing from AMC, along with the premieres of many huge Netflix originals like Emily in Paris, unfortunately pushed it out.

Still, it's an incredible testament to the staying power and legacy of the series, which was a cult favorite when it aired from 2005 to 2009 and again with its revival season in 2017. Since the show left the air, fans have been wanting a sixth season, and while the leading stars Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell are soon reuniting, it's not for season 6. Rather, it's a potential new series.

Along with Prison Break, other shows on the overall most-viewed streaming shows for the week of Aug. 5-11 included Netflix's The Umbrella Academy (1.45 billion minutes), Bluey (1.03 billion minutes), Grey's Anatomy (940 million minutes), which is also available on Hulu, and the aforementioned House of the Dragon. Netflix boasts three of these five series and shares two of those three with Hulu.

Sometimes, numbers like these can help fuel the fire of bringing the series back or franchising a reboot or spinoff, just like what happened with Suits. Sometimes it's merely a victory lap. Perhaps these billion viewing minutes will help push forward the spinoff series in the works at Hulu. But more than anything, it's simply exciting to see television shows have the chance to still be watched and appreciated.

Watch the complete Prison Break series while its available on Netflix.