The Netflix version of Neil Gaiman’s novel The Sandman is off to a strong start.

According to Nielsen’s streaming rankings, the show received more than a billion minutes of viewing time in the three days following its Aug. 5 premiere. It was barely behind the final two programs to hold the top rank for the week of August 1–7 among all original series.
With 1.42 billion minutes of viewing time, Netflix’s Stranger Things, which had spent the previous two weeks in second place, recovered the top spot. For the seventh time in the ten weeks since the late May premiere of season four, it topped the charts. It decreased by roughly 22% from the prior week.
Virgin River, which had been the top original series the previous week, experienced a steeper 42 percent decline to place second among them with 1.39 billion minutes, followed by The Sandman with 1.02 billion. Since The Terminal List had 1.11 billion minutes of streaming on Prime Video in early July, it was the largest series launch.
For the period of August 1–7, the acquired series with the highest viewing time was the preschool program Cocomelon (741 million minutes). Lightyear from Pixar took first place in the rankings for streaming movies on Disney+ (1.31 billion minutes), surpassing Uncharted from Netflix (1.01 billion).