Luke Cage smashed Marvel's 2016 Netflix ratings

Although Luke Cage was only introduced as a supporting player in Marvel's Jessica Jones on Netflix in 2015, the character has proved to be a heavyweight in the ratings game.

Viewing figures for the first season - which dropped on the 30th of September this year and explored Cage's origin story and superhuman abilities - have been 'guesstimated' by company Symphony Advanced Media, who collate data via various devices with users' permission. Because Netflix chooses not to release their own viewing figures, this tends to become the most we can glean from the tentative mathematics of audience reception.

Using search engine and social media use, as well as ambient sound from device microphones (wait, what?) Symphony Advanced Media reported that in the first 32 days of Luke Cage's release, 6.34% of viewers were tuned in to the first season per minute. In comparison, they established that only 5.94% of viewers were watching Daredevil season 2 in the same time frame. 

So in terms of a Marvel duel, Daredevil may have lost to Luke Cage, but other figures released by the company reveal that even though Luke Cage performed seriously well in its first week, original Netflix series Stranger Things achieved 9.81% of viewers per minute over the full 32 days, making it the bigger hit by a long chalk.

Previously:

Last month, Marvel opted to release one of the original songs from the series. Here is Bulletproof Love, by Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (featuring Wu-Tang Clan alum Method Man). Be warned: the lyrics do contain vague allusions to some spoilers...

Bulletproof Love is available on iTunes and streaming services.

Luke Cage release date

All 13 episodes of Marvel’s Luke Cage – starring Mike Colter as the eponymous and impenetrable hero – arrived on Netflix on Friday the 30^th of September 2016.