Animals Tops Nielsen Streaming Chart With 756 Million Minutes
Ben Affleck's Netflix film led the week of October 12 to 18, 2026, outpacing Toy Story 5 by a wide margin.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Animation
Animals ranked first on Nielsen's streaming charts for the week of October 12 to 18, 2026, with 756 million minutes watched. Toy Story 5 placed second with 274 million minutes.
Why it matters
The film's lead over second place widened from the prior week, when it logged 719 million minutes against Doing Life's 428 million. The chart shows how a single streaming release can dominate viewing across a full week.
Nielsen recorded 756 million minutes watched for Animals in the week of October 12 to 18, 2026, versus 274 million for second-place Toy Story 5. The data covers only streaming minutes in that single week, and the extraction does not report longer-term viewership totals.
The players
Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck is an actor, director and writer who wrote, directed and produced Animals.
Nielsen
Nielsen is a media measurement company that tracks streaming viewing minutes and publishes weekly charts.
The details
Animals, written, directed and produced by Ben Affleck and co-starring Kerry Washington, was released on Netflix on October 9, 2026. The 106-minute film received a 30% positive critic rating from 81 reviews and a 37% audience rating from more than 500 Rotten Tomatoes ratings.
Timeline
October 9, 2026: Animals is released on Netflix.
October 5 to 11, 2026: Animals ranks first with 719 million minutes watched.
October 12 to 18, 2026: Animals ranks first with 756 million minutes watched.
Industry Dynamics
Weekly Nielsen rankings have become a primary public measure of how streaming originals compete with major franchise releases like Toy Story 5 for audience time. A film that leads by 2.7 times the second-place title illustrates how a single Netflix original can capture a larger share of viewing than a established animated franchise in the same week.
Animals is streaming exclusively on Netflix, so viewers wanting to watch it need a Netflix subscription. The film's 106-minute runtime makes it a single-evening viewing option for subscribers.
The takeaway
Weekly streaming rankings can shift quickly, so a title's position on one chart reflects only the viewing for that period. Readers tracking a title's popularity should compare multiple weeks of Nielsen data before drawing conclusions.
Further reading
For more on the genre, explore the Animation section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by CBR.
