Considering the chaotic royal storylines we’ve been dealing with in the past month, I thought we were due for another emotional-support poll, something along the lines of “99% of respondents believe Prince William will be the best king ever, but only when the other choice is Prince Andrew.” But no, we’re not getting a new poll. The British media was handed this gift-wrapped on a plate by Netflix. Netflix released their viewership numbers for the first half of 2025. The Duchess of Sussex’s With Love, Meghan did not crack the top 300 most-watched shows. WLM sits at #383. Out of 7,000 shows, apparently? Which would still put it in the top 6% most-viewed Netflix shows.
The numbers are in for Meghan Markle’s lifestyle series on Netflix, With Love, Meghan. Netflix released a new Engagement Report on July 17, revealing what Netflix viewers watched in the first half of 2025. According to the report, the Duchess of Sussex’s show, which premiered on March 4, landed at number 383 with 5.3 million views.
Meanwhile, Polo, which was released on Dec. 10 and executive-produced by Prince Harry and Meghan, was watched by 500,000 and ranked at 3,436.
Netflix’s list of most-watched shows by views was topped by Adolescence (145 million), Squid Game’s second season (117 million) and Squid Game’s third season (72 million).
On March 12, a week after the show’s debut, With Love, Meghan ranked tenth on Netflix’s global Top 10 Shows Overview list, having amassed 2.6 million views and 12.6 million hours watched. At the time, it ranked seventh on Netflix’s Top 10 Shows chart in the United Kingdom and tenth on the platform’s Top 10 list in the United States.
I mean, sure? I have no idea what the viewership numbers look like for Food Network programming, but I would imagine that The Barefoot Contessa would LOVE 5.3 million views. That’s how people should make the comparisons – what’s the comparable audience for another female-led cooking/entertaining show? It’s idiotic to compare WLM to Squid Game or Running Point. But that’s just what the British outlets are doing, crowing about how WLM “only” has 5.3 million views. Does anyone have the viewership numbers on the Princess of Wales’s annual Christmas carol show? Last I heard, that show was getting beaten by Eastenders reruns. What about the viewership for Prince William’s homelessness two-part documentary? Or any of his Earthshot programs? Because I seem to recall a lonely tumbleweed blowing through some of the big Earthshot streams. Literally tens of people watching. 5.3 million doesn’t sound so bad now, right?
A few more things… as soon as I saw WLM, I remarked on how inexpensive it was to make for Netflix. This is not some big-budget series shot over the course of eight months – Meghan probably shot the first season in a month or less, and I doubt the production had much more than a crew of 20. Meghan makes things look expensive, of course, and it’s a love letter to scenic California, but a major reason why Netflix is happy with Meghan and happy with WLM is because WLM is probably one of their cheapest productions. That’s why they’ve already filmed a second season and why even the Daily Mail says that Netflix plans to renew the Sussexes’ deal and order more seasons of WLM.
Photos courtesy of Netflix.
