IT’s Back and Breaking the Stream: ‘Welcome to Derry’ Scores Big—Is HBO Max the New Horror Hotspot or Just a Fluke?
Added on December 1, 2025 inTV News Cards
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Is the cosmos nudging us to binge on horror this week, or is it just pure streaming magic? Either way, HBO Max’s latest treat, IT: Welcome to Derry, crashed onto screens with a wild 620 million minutes watched in its debut full week—making it the hottest HBO original since The Last of Us dropped that monster of a total back in May. Now, if Mercury retrograde is known for stirring up chaos, maybe it’s also responsible for dragging us back into the eerie town of Derry, proving that some nostalgia mixed with spine-tingling horror is exactly what we need. It’s no small feat to snag the seventh spot among acquired series and just barely miss the overall top 10, especially in a landscape crowded with giants like Nobody Wants This, which claimed the crown with 919 million minutes. Fancy a peek behind the scenes and the streaming stats shaking up our screens? Dive in and satisfy that curiosity. LEARN MORE
IT: Welcome to Derry had a solid showing in its first full week of streaming, bringing in the best single week result for an HBO or HBO Max original series in five months.
The prequel to the IT films drew 620 million minutes of viewing time for the week of Oct. 27-Nov. 2. The total includes a full week of viewing for the series premiere (which aired Oct. 26) and a few hours of the second episode that debuted the night of Nov. 2. Welcome to Derry ranked seventh among acquired series (Nielsen designates HBO shows that also stream on HBO Max that way) and just outside the overall top 10 for the week, coming in 12th.
The 620 million viewing minutes for Welcome to Derry is the best weekly total for an HBO or HBO Max original series since the final week of May, when The Last of Us recorded 691 million minutes of viewing.
Nobody Wants This moved into the overall No. 1 spot with 919 million minutes of watch time, up slightly from 904 million a week earlier. The previous week’s leader, The Diplomat, fell to fifth overall with 742 million minutes.
Netflix’s fantasy series The Witcher returned after a nearly 2 1/2-year hiatus, and with a new lead actor in Liam Hemsworth. It finished second overall with 837 million minutes, down 36 percent from the 1.31 billion minutes for the opening week of season three in June 2023 (which was in turn off from season two’s premiere).
Kathryn Bigelow’s thriller A House of Dynamite (825 million minutes) led the movie charts in its second week. The previous week’s top film, The Perfect Neighbor, tumbled nearly 77 percent to 236 million minutes.
Nielsen’s streaming ratings cover viewing on TV sets only and don’t include minutes watched on computers or mobile devices. The ratings only measure U.S. audiences, not those in other countries. The top streaming titles for Oct. 27-Nov. 2, 2025, are below.
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