Initial traffic numbers for 'Dr. Horrible'

The "Dr. Horrible" creators sent me some data about the number of views/streams for the three acts of "Dr. Horrible." Apparently, there is some lag in the way the Hulu streams are tabulated (the show streamed through the Hulu player), so these may not reflect the final totals. The show was taken down Sunday night after a one-week run. The creators are deciding how and when to re-post the show. Numbers:

Act One*: 1,149,846 streams
Act Two: 625,552 streams
Act Three: 427,785 streams

*This total would probably be quite a bit higher if DrHorrible.com hadn't crashed for most of a day last week.  The above totals also exclude iTunes downloads; the "Dr. Horrible" episodes have been among iTunes' most downloaded TV shows since they premiered.

Two and a quarter million streams in five days -- or about 450,000 streams a day -- is a significant  number, especially for clips that are 15 minutes long. To compare, this week's most-viewed videos on YouTube:

1) "College" movie trailer -- 800,000 views in two days. (I watched this. Really?)
2) Fans raving about "Dark Knight" -- 600,000 views in five days (This too. Double really?)
3) Smosh's Food Battle trailer -- 550,000 views in four days (This three. Single really again.)

So that's a total of about 1.95 million views for the top three over five days, while Dr. Horrible scored closer to 2.2 million. This is not an exact comparison because the YouTube clips were not linked by a brand (though two of them were associated with movie advertising campaigns, one of which was among the biggest ever). Still, the viewership numbers paint a reasonable picture of how many views the Internet's most-watched videos can generate in an average week. 

Conclusion: "Dr. Horrible" was able to get YouTube-topping numbers without spending a dollar on paid promotion. It would've been nice to see how many more views the show could've racked up if it had stayed live, but the producers should be able to leverage the initial success to get some advertising for the second run.

Also:

Joss Whedon's 'Dr. Horrible' is a site-crashing success
Q&A: Whedon examines 'Dr. Horrible'
Whedon Expects 'Horrible' to break even
Photo Gallery: Behind the Scenes of 'Dr. Horrible'

Photo: Amy Opoka

Comments

[Blu]

I wonder how many of those first-day streams were actually complete. Even after they moved to the Hulu server, the stream was impossible to watch for a good portion of the day. I had to hit it a bunch of times to finally get it to run all the way through without rebuffering every 10 seconds.

[Miss Zahrah]

If you can't get enough of that wacky singing mad scientist bent on world domination stuff (because it was only 3 episodes for a limited time) ... then check out Doctor Steel! The ongoing movement for world domination with robots, toys, puppets and Mind Control Cookies!- definitely not here for a limited time only!

Check it out his music at www.doctorsteel.com under Audio Experimentation or on YouTube. (psst.. it's free, too!)