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Amazon’s US audience for Prime Video is reportedly around 26 million

Amazon’s US audience for Prime Video is reportedly around 26 million

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Reuters obtained company documents that compare metrics for Amazon’s 19 original series

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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Amazon has never revealed viewership numbers for any of its Prime Video content, but internal documents obtained by Reuters shed new light on the streaming service’s audience size. Around 26 million people in the US stream videos on Amazon Prime, according to Reuters.

The documents also reportedly reveal how many new subscribers a particular TV show or movie drew to Amazon. For example, Reuters reports that The Man in the High Castle had 8 million US viewers in early 2017, while bringing in “1.15 million new subscribers worldwide based on Amazon’s accounting.” It’s not clear how Amazon determines which new subscribers were lured by a particular series.

Amazon’s original series Transparent, now in its fourth season, is not one of the company’s most viewed, according to Reuters. The show’s third season reportedly hit a low of 1.3 million viewers. Although Transparent won an Emmy in 2016, the show has gone through major changes recently. Last year, lead actor Jeffrey Tambor quit following allegations of sexual harassment.

Amazon’s rival Netflix announced last year that it had 100 million subscribers, but that’s on a global scale and is not an active viewer count. Earlier this year, Hulu, whose users are mostly US-based, said it had 17 million subscribers.

Last year, analysts estimated that Amazon would spend around $4.5 billion on original content in 2017, and it’s still spending a lot of money on programming. In November, Amazon won the rights to the Lord of the Rings universe for an estimated $200 to $250 million. As Reuters points out, Amazon hopes its investment in Prime Video will pay off in other ways, like convincing new subscribers to buy stuff on Amazon.

Although Amazon has also not disclosed its total number of Prime memberships, recent estimates put the count at about 79 million people in the US.

The Verge has reached out to Amazon and will update with any new information.