The Summer I Turned Pretty is back with a force on Prime Video.
The third and final season made a splash with its July 16 debut, raking in 25M viewers globally on the streamer in its first seven days of availability, per data shared by Amazon.
Season 3 viewership was up 40% in the first seven days compared to Season 2’s performance. Even more impressive, series viewership has tripled from Season 1 to Season 3 in the seven-day window.
(Editor’s Note: As we’ve previously mentioned, it’s unclear how Amazon is able to measure exactly how many people were viewing at the time an account was streaming the content — a capability that Nielsen has due to its own data on how many people live in the households the company measures. Amazon tends to report “viewers” for successful titles, but has declined to offer clarification on this point.)
The Summer I Turned Pretty has pierced the cultural zeitgeist in a way that few young adult series have managed in recent years. Season 3 is the No. 1 most-watched season of television among women 18-34 right now, and it’s the fifth most-watched returning season on Prime Video.
The No. 1 title on the streamer globally in its first seven days, it truly has traveled the globe, with outsize performance in the UK, Germany, and Brazil.
So, what’s the secret sauce?
“I think it’s really Jenny and this incredible cast and the incredible team they’ve assembled,” Vernon Sanders, Head of Global Television, Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, tells Deadline. “If you think about it, this was a book series that was published a fair while ago, and so I think there have been a number of people who’ve come into this over the years. What Jenny has been able to do, and hopefully we’ve been able to help, is build this community that has just been incredibly passionate and committed and interested.”
The series returned this summer after a lengthier-than-expected hiatus. Season 3 was greenlit before the 2023 writers and actors strikes, but production did not begin until the work stoppage was resolved, which is the primary reason for the delay. It doesn’t appear to have deterred audiences though and, if anything, gave Prime Video a runway to really rev fans up for the third installment.
That said, Sanders admits the numbers they’ve seen so far have exceeded their expectations: “To see these kinds of numbers after a two-year absence is what’s really blown us away. So it’s the right show at the right time and executed in the right way by an incredible team.”
In a statement of her own, Han adds: “Seeing how The Summer I Turned Pretty has resonated with millions — how the story has sparked so many fan conversations, sent the books back on the bestseller lists, and inspired so many viewers’ reactions across social media — it’s everything I could have hoped for and more. As creator and co-showrunner, I’m incredibly proud of what we made. I’m grateful we got to make all three seasons, one for each book, and grateful that audiences have been so passionately embracing the story I wanted to tell.”
New episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 hit Prime Video on Wednesdays through September September 17.