Streaming Ratings: The Handmaid’s Tale Season Finale Drives High Viewership for Hulu

The season finale of The Handmaid’s Tale had a big impact on Hulu’s ratings, making it one of the show’s top weeks ever according to Nielsen’s streaming ratings. The adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel drew in 900 million minutes of viewing for the week of May 26-June 1, with the final episode premiering on May 27. This was the third-highest weekly total for The Handmaid’s Tale, following the premiere week of the final season and the opening week of season four in 2021, which both featured three new episodes. The show’s first three seasons were not included in Nielsen’s streaming charts.

The Handmaid’s Tale ranked third overall for the week and second among original series, falling behind Netflix’s Sirens as the overall No. 1 title in the United States with 1.51 billion viewing minutes. The limited series saw an 11% improvement from its premiere week, with 1.36 billion minutes of watch time.

In addition to these strong performances, two new series made their mark in the rankings. Netflix’s crime drama Dept. Q saw 749 million viewing minutes, while Prime Video’s The Better Sister accumulated 731 million minutes, placing them third and fourth respectively among original series and landing them both in the overall top 10. The return of Netflix’s animated series Big Mouth (402 million minutes) following its final season premiere, and Apple TV+’s Your Friends & Neighbors (392 million minutes) also made notable showings in this week’s rankings.