Netflix Viewership Took a Significant Hit Thanks to the Total Solar Eclipse

Monday's rare cosmic event also bested the Super Bowl on Facebook.

August 22, 2017

Not only did Monday's total solar eclipse give us a bevy of images of some idiot staring directly at the sun, but it also gave Netflix something to publicly complain about. Monday afternoon, the official Netflix Twitter account shared a pair of complaints regarding its temporary drop in viewership during the celestial event.

According to Netflix, the eclipse caused a 10 percent drop in plays on Monday. "Well played, Moon," @Netflix said, as though the moon is capable of reading and replying to tweets. Anyway, check the complaints:

The eclipse also took aim at something called "the Super Bowl." Sources say this "Super Bowl" event consists of American football and expensive commercials for inexpensive beer, a pairing that was apparently no match for the beauty of science Monday. More than 66 million people hit Facebook (unofficially known as Twitter for Dummies) to share eclipse-related material, Facebook told the Hollywood Reporter Tuesday.

By comparison, 64 million people shared Super Bowl-related material on Facebook earlier this year. All told, Facebook saw 240 million interactions (posts, shares, comments, likes, etc.) related to the eclipse.

Monday's big show resulted in a fleet of classic memes and eclipse-themed displays of capitalism. The moment also brought a moment of clarity about humans place in the universe, a perspective check we definitely need right now. "The divided United States of America will unite today, sharing a cosmic event predicted by the methods and tools of science," Neil deGrasse Tyson said.

Science always wins.

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