Bridgerton Season 3 Breaks Records with Its Biggest Opening Weekend Yet

Bridgerton season 3 has set a new benchmark with the show’s most impressive opening weekend to date. According to a recent Netflix press release, the first half of the third season garnered an astounding 45.05 million views worldwide from its premiere on Thursday, May 16, through Tuesday, May 21. This translates to approximately 165.2 million hours of viewing time in just five days.

In comparison, season 2, which debuted in March 2022, accumulated over 193 million hours of viewing time across all its episodes. However, it’s worth noting that this is the first time Bridgerton has split its season release into two installments rather than dropping all episodes at once. Netflix did not release weekly viewing numbers for the inaugural season, making season 3’s achievement even more notable.

Moreover, Bridgerton season 3 also achieved the highest single weekly view count for any Netflix series since the platform began ranking titles by views in June 2023.

Bridgerton, based on Julia Quinn‘s popular book series, follows the opulent Bridgerton family as they navigate love and society in 19th-century London. The series is anticipated to span eight seasons, each focusing on one of the eight Bridgerton siblings.

Season 3 shifts its focus to Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan), exploring how their friendship evolves into a deeper romantic connection. This new season follows the love stories of previous seasons, including Daphne Bridgerton’s (Phoebe Dynevor) romance with Simon Basset (Regé-Jean Page) and Anthony Bridgerton’s (Jonathan Bailey) journey with Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley).

Julia Quinn, reflecting on the adaptation of Colin and Penelope’s story from her novel “Romancing Mr. Bridgerton,” expressed her excitement about seeing their romance come to life on screen. In an interview with The New York Post, Quinn shared, “For me, the most exciting thing is that this season — unlike most ones we’ve had before and probably mostly ones that would come after — is about two characters that we already know quite well.”

Quinn also revealed the challenges she faced while writing “Romancing Mr. Bridgerton.” She noted, “There’s a different type of emotional investment coming into it. It’s interesting because when I was writing the books — this book, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, which is actually the fourth in the series, was the hardest one to plot.”

She explained that Colin and Penelope were already “very established characters” before they became the central focus, making it difficult to create a cohesive plot. “I usually maybe have one character you’re bringing in from before and then you can mold the other one into what you need. So this time it was really hard to come up with a plot that actually worked for everything. I’d already made these characters with the experiences that they had.”

Discussing the show’s phenomenal success, Quinn admitted that the response to Bridgerton took her by surprise. “I did not expect it to be as crazy big as it is,” she said. “It took everyone by surprise, in the best possible way. I really think that people could look at Bridgerton as a masterclass in adaptation. Because each season doesn’t follow [the books] word for word. And there are things that are changed in the plot.”

Quinn praised the show’s ability to stay true to the essence of her characters and main conflicts despite deviations from the original plot. “If you look over the arc of the whole season, the characters are absolutely true to who they are. The main conflict is actually true to what it was. So, I think it’s really brilliant.”

As the first half of Bridgerton season 3 continues to stream on Netflix, fans eagerly await the remaining episodes, which are set to drop on Thursday, June 13. This season’s record-breaking debut and the compelling storylines promise that Bridgerton will continue to captivate audiences worldwide.

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