The season 4 finale of The Boys may have broken fans’ hearts, but not Prime Video’s. After the episode dropped on July 18, it effectively set a new streaming record for Amazon during the week of July 15 through July 21. More than a billion minutes that week were streamed, breaking a few Nielson records for the studio, Deadline reported on Friday, August 16.
According to the outlet, the show was streamed for 1.3 billion minutes after the finale aired. This became the series’ highest weekly total since it had already crossed the billion-minute threshold seven times beforehand. The Boys now has 20 appearances in the top 10 Nielsen titles.
Season 4 ended on a major cliffhanger. Several Boys were captured by Vought, and others remain apart from each other. Homelander (played by Antony Starr) has taken full control over the new U.S. government; Annie (Erin Moriarty) has to leave Jack Quaid‘s character, Hughie, because of her reinstated powers; Butcher (Karl Urban) and Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) are seen riding into the night carrying a vial of the supe virus, and Homelander finds out that his supe father, Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) is still alive.
Shortly before the finale episode aired, Prime Video added a content warning note for its depiction of a fictional presidential assassination. Additionally, the episode title was changed from “Assassination Run” to “Season Four Finale.” Five days earlier, Donald Trump was shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that month.
“The season finale of The Boys contains scenes of fictional political violence, which some viewers may find disturbing, especially in light of the injuries and tragic loss of life sustained during the assassination attempt on former President Trump,” a message from The Boys’ Instagram account read. “The Boys is a fictitious series that was filmed in 2023, and any scene or plotline similarities to these real-world events are coincidental and unintentional. Amazon, Sony Pictures Television and the producers of The Boys reject, in the strongest terms, real-world violence of any kind.”