ARTICLE: ‘Days Of Our Lives’: A Peacock Success Story

[Errol]

Currently celebrating its 60th anniversary season, “Days of our Lives” has been a standout performer on Peacock for several years, consistently appearing on the streaming service’s daily top 10 most watched TV shows list even before becoming exclusive to the platform in September 2022.

In a report released last month, Luminate, a data and insights company that measures and tracks engagement and consumption across music, film and television, highlighted the long-running soap opera as an unlikely success story amid a competitive landscape while also breaking down its overall performance throughout calendar year 2024.

According to the service, Season 59 (169 episodes) of “Days of our Lives” ranked as the second most watched original program on Peacock with 3.1 billion minutes watched, while Season 60 (92 episodes) ranked fourth with 2.4 billion minutes. Only reality dating show “Love Island USA” did better on the streamer with 5.6 billion minutes watched during its 37-episode sixth season.

Closing out Peacock’s top five originals list, the 10-episode first season of political thriller “The Day of the Jackal” ranked third with 2.7 billion minutes watched while the 10-episode first season of the historical drama “Those About to Die” and the 12-episode second season of reality competition series “The Traitors” tied for fifth, each with 1.4 billion minutes.

The rest of the top 10 most watched original shows on Peacock were slightly above or below a billion minutes watched, led by “Bel-Air,” a drama series iteration based on the iconic comedy “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” which had 1.1 billion minutes watched for its 10-episode third season, ranking seventh on the streamer’s originals chart.

Most Watched Peacock Original TV Series in 2024 

Rank / Show	Minutes Watched (In Billions)	Season	Episodes
1. Love Island USA	5,600	6	37
2. Days of our Lives	3,100	59	169 (in 2024)
3. The Day of the Jackal	2,700	1	10
4. Days of our Lives	2,400	60	92 (in 2024)
5. Those About to Die	1,400	1	10
— The Traitors	1,400	2	12
7. Bel-Air	1,100	3	10
8. The Tattooist of Auschwitz	1,000	1	6
9. Ted	900	1	7
— Apples Never Fall	900	1	7

Source: Luminate Streaming Viewership (M) December 29, 2023 – January 2, 2025 – Excludes Sports and WWE Content

Noting that each new season of “Days of our Lives” runs from August to August, the service said that Season 60 amassed 3.8 billion minutes watched between August 26, 2024 and March 30, 2025, citing the 156 episodes released during the reporting period. Further, Season 60 remained on the overall top 50 streaming original TV shows chart for 31 out of the 32 weeks, peaking at No. 17.

In its 2024 year-end film & TV report, Luminate revealed that the first season of the Disney+ original series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” had 3.070 billion minutes watched, while season one of “The Acolyte,” also on Disney+, had 2.673 billion minutes watched. Meanwhile, Season 60 of the long-running soap opera had more minutes watched since release than that of such high profile shows as “Severance” on Apple TV+ (Season 2), “A Man on the Inside” on Netflix, “Only Murders in the Building” on Hulu/Hulu on Disney+ (Season 4), “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” on Prime Video (Season 2) and “The Pitt” on Max (soon to be re-branded back to HBO Max).

In 2023, Variety reported “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” was estimated to have cost somewhere between $12 million and $15 million per episode, while sources tell Soap Opera Network that a complete season of “Days of our Lives” (north of 250 episodes) is estimated to cost somewhere between $20 million and $30 million, down a bit in cost from when the show was still airing on NBC. Meanwhile, a full season of “General Hospital” on ABC is estimated to cost between $40 and $45 million.

Factoring in the eight most popular streaming services tracked by Luminate and each platform’s share of consumption among U.S. original content viewing time, the performance of “Days of our Lives” is even more noteworthy for Peacock considering Netflix leads all streamers with a 63.5% share, followed by Prime Video in second with 8.5%, Paramount+ in third with 7.8%, Apple TV+ in fourth with 5.3%, and Hulu rounding out the top five with 5.1%. Disney+ ranked sixth with a 4.4% share, followed by Peacock in seventh with 3.1% and Max in eighth place at a mere 1.5%. Falling into the “Other” category at a combined 0.8% were AMC+ (0.4%), Tubi (0.3%) and Discovery+ (0.1%).

Although the performance of “Days of our Lives” can’t be viewed as a pure apples-to-apples comparison, considering most other streaming originals consist of eight to 13 episodes per season, Luminate points out that the show is making a case for itself from a higher-volume approach while maintaining a “steady daily viewership across hundreds of modestly budgeted episodes,” making it a solid bet for Peacock among a foray of more than 400 streaming originals that are currently in various stages of production and awaiting premiere dates this year alone across all platforms, 14 of which are at Peacock.

In April, Comcast, parent of NBCUniversal, which includes Peacock under its umbrella, reported the streamer had 41 million paid subscribers through Q1 2025. The service gained 5 million additional subscribers from Q4 2024 following the addition of Charter Communications subscribers, and was also up from Q3 2024.

Note: Unlike the ratings data regularly published here at Soap Opera Network, which are generally based on Live+Same Day figures compiled by Nielsen, total minutes watched is the standard for tracking the overall performance of streaming content with Nielsen and Luminate being just two of several providers utilized by streamers in monitoring the viewing habits of subscribers.

Streaming viewership for non-originals on Peacock was unavailable at press time. This includes shows like “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and the recently renewed One Chicago franchise (“Chicago Med,” “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago P.D.”).

Note: The post ‘Days Of Our Lives’: A Peacock Success Story appeared first on the Soap Opera Network website.
 

 

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[skiman12082004]

This makes me so happy, that DAYS appears to have defied the odds and successfully transitioning to streaming. I think this bodes well for the continuation and success of daytime soaps on broadcast and streaming. 

[Liberty City]

Well, that's a positive for DAYS and for Peacock as a whole.

[DaytimeFan]

The business case for soap operas on streaming cannot be denied. DAYS does better numbers than prestige programming, for pennies an episode by comparison.

[Chris B]

It amazes me more soaps aren't in streaming for this reason. I feel like Amazon made a big mistake dumping Neighbours which was doing well but "not part of their new vision." That is insane when you consider how much they're spending on original programming which often struggles to be successful.

I'm happy that Days remains a key player for Peacock. I know people complain about the budget but I actually think the show looks pretty good. Now that they've fixed the situation with the writing, I am back loving the show and watching daily on Peacock. 

If I had one budget-related request it would be maybe to give them a little extra money to do a one year special thing like a big cast remote or stunt storyline. That's one thing we haven't seen on Days in a long time.

 

[DRW50]

Neighbours didn't seem to be doing well enough, although I wish they had given it another year. 

I am happy for DAYS. Peacock seems to have a shaky future, especially with all the problems NBC and Comcast are having, but I hope the show gets a few more years at least. DAYS has always been a survivor. 

[Errol]

While Neighbours should have done better on Prime Video (nee Freevee), it had two things going against it, IMO.

1. Failure by the publicity team in garnering interest in the U.S. market. Lazy. Lazy. Lazy.
2. Amazon shelling out $1 billion to gain creative control of the James Bond IP at a time when the Neighbours contract was due for renewal. That's a lot of money and sacrifices were made as a result.

[Chris B]

I never understood why they made efforts to include Americans in the story but never did anything to promote the show here. That was a huge mistake.

[Liberty City]

I also believe those involved in bringing it to Amazon MGM leaving prior to renewal did not help its cause. I wish the American press had paid more attention to Neighbours following its return, but alas... that was not the case.

[Vee]

I think Neighbours was a perfect storm of many elements including everything listed above. But as I've said before, I just don't think streamers have been serious enough about understanding or committing to long-form serials themselves financially despite craving those endless years of sitcom, etc. archival content. When a team was in place at Amazon that wanted to try, it apparently got dumped and now we have the ongoing streaming crunch/crash.

And yes, it's beyond me there aren't more homegrown streaming soaps.

Edited May 25 by Vee

[cody_1990]

Great news! This really shows how helpful soaps can still be. The amount they all have been written off by executives and the press over the years is really so short sighted. We all remember Jeff Zucker, the man who nearly destroyed NBC pronouncing Days dead in 2007. Almost 20 years later and it's propping up one of NBCU's most important ventures. I wish this would equal more budget for Days. Even enough to spruce up some sets would be great. 

The fact Days has gotten more eyeballs watching it than a season of Lord of the Rings, a show that costs over 100 million dollars a season to produce 10 episodes, really goes to show you how much money these platforms are pretty much throwing away. 5 more seasons and 1200 episodes of Days could be produced with that cash! Hopefully this means Days still has a bright future ahead. I assume if the show continues to produce this type of viewership, even if NBCU were to dump it, it may turn up somewhere else. 

Edited May 25 by cody_1990

[Ryanc2]

Imagine if Passions being canceled by NBC happened today. That show moving to DirecTV was ahead of its time and people simply weren’t going to care enough to subscribe back then. The supernatural stuff has made a comeback too with shows like Stranger Things. I think it could have had a chance on a streaming platform like Peacock if it happened today.

 

I’m happy for Days and soap operas in general. It feels like there might be light at the end of the tunnel after all for the genre as a whole with shows like Beyond the Gates becoming so successful (First soap opera in almost 25 years like WHAT). I’m going to remain hopeful for what the future holds! 

[BetterForgotten]

Yes, Peacock (and Paramount+ tbh) is a struggling platform in the grand scheme of streaming. In Nielsen's Streaming Overall and Original charts (which is always published on a month's delay), they don't register a single show in the top 10 of either chart. Netflix still dominates this space, but the other steamers have made some inroads and have been able to crack the top 10 more regularly. 

 

  

[AbcNbc247]

Great news!

Maybe since it’s clear that Days is the one that’s paying most of the bills, Peacock can put a little bit more money into it. A new set or two, maybe? Or an increase in the number of contract actors that are allowed to appear in each episode. 

[Michael]

It's nice to get some concrete data on this. It makes sense -- there's a lot of value in a show that gets people to open the app every single weekday. 

I do agree that it'd be nice if there could be a once-a-year kick in the pants for funding a special event or week of episodes or something. The tight margins are what MAKE it a success, so I'm not expecting them to break the bank and upend that, but there has to be a little wiggle room.