‘The Boys’ Is Amazon’s Highest Rated Original Series Ever On IMDB

The Boys continues to be shaping up to be the kind of breakout hit Amazon Prime Video is looking for in the face of increased competition. The graphic superhero adaption has struck a chord with audiences and critics alike, and the former can actually be measured pretty readily.

As it currently stands, The Boys has an 8.9/10 rating on IMDB. This makes the 36th highest rated series in TV history on the site, but perhaps more importantly, it is both Amazon’s highest rated series and the highest rated superhero show on TV, including all the Marvel and DC universe series.

For comparison, here are a few of Amazon Prime Video’s other high profile series:

Multiple Emmy winner, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – 8.7

The Expanse – 8.4 (Amazon-era seasons haven’t aired yet)

The Man in the High Castle – 8.1

And for additional comparison, here’s how The Boys stacks up against a number of superhero series across a whole bunch of different networks, and Marvel and DC favorites. The only one that beats it is the original, Batman: The Animated Series at a 9.0. But for live action...

Legends of Tomorrow – 6.8 (this is a crime)

It’s possible that The Boys still drops a couple fractions of a point as time goes on and some of the initial superfans give way to more casual viewers, that’s what usually happens. But even if it dips to 8.7 or so, that’s still tied with or above all the big names on this list.

While I doubt The Boys is going to end up winning any Emmys like Mrs. Maisel any time soon (though give Antony Starr one for playing Homelander), this does feel like a breakout hit in a way that we really just have not seen all that often from Amazon before. We know that season 2 of The Boys is already coming, and there’s quite a lot of source material still to be covered, so this is a series that could run indefinitely.

Is The Boys actually the best original show on Amazon Prime Video? That’s a question that comes down to personal taste. It’s extremely hard to make an apples and oranges comparison to the likes of Fleabag or Mrs. Maisel, which I think are on top of their genre without question. I also think recent seasons of The Expanse makes it literally the best science fiction show on TV. Possible one of the best in history. So that’s tough competition as well. But as you may have heard, I really, really liked The Boys as well, a blend of black comedy, great world building and fantastic characters that outpace anything Marvel or DC is doing on TV these days, short of perhaps Daredevil’s final season.

Check it out, you won’t regret it.

Update: Amazon is actually talking about viewership for The Boys as well.

Head of Amazon Studios Jennifer Salke: “We are thrilled that The Boys has surpassed our predictions for viewing in its first two weeks, and has become one of our most watched Amazon Original series by our Prime Video customers."

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