More People Watched Madame Web on Netflix Than Deadpool and Wolverine on Disney+?

A new X post from What’s on Netflix indicates that more people watched Sony’s box office flop “Madame Web” on Netflix in the first two weeks than they watched Marvel’s “Deadpool and Wolverine” on Disney+.  According to the Nielsen metrics, 16 million watched “Madame Web” and 200k less watched “Deadpool & Wolverine” (15.8 million.)

MADAME WEB had more views (16M) on Netflix in its first two weeks streaming than DEADPOOL VS. WOLVERINE on Disney+ (15.8M) per Nielsen numbers. pic.twitter.com/3VYvg9wxUP

— What’s on Netflix (@whatonnetflix) April 21, 2025

Is this even true?

Not according to Disney, who claimed that “Deadpool and Wolverine” got 19.4 million views in its first six days on Disney+.

Disney defines a “view” as total stream time divided by runtime. Netflix defined “a view” as two minutes watched.

The key here is that this information is only from the viewpoint of Neilsen and not from the streaming service. Neilsen measures their data from a panel of randomly selected households within their system of 42,000 or so households with their network.

Any of this “data” could be skewed if it came from the streaming service or Neilsen.

If it is true, how is it possible for “Madame Web” to beat “Deadpool and Wolverine”

There are a couple of reasons “Madame Web” could legitimately beat “Deadpool and Wolverine” on streaming.

1. Far more people went to the theaters to see “Deadpool and Wolverine.”

“Madame Web” only brought in $100.49 million globally at the box office. It didn’t even hit $44 million domestically. “Snow White” actually beat “Madame Web” in box office totals.

While “Deadpool and Wolverine” earned $1.338 billion at the box office and about $637 million of that came from the domestic box office. Marvel’s film did about 13.3 times more than Sony’s film.

More people likely watched at least two minutes of “Madame Web” on Netflix since they did not go to the theater to see the film. Since so many people already saw “Deadpool and Wolverine” in the theater, they may not have rewatched it on Disney+.

  2. Netflix has many more subscribers than Disney+.

Far more people pay for Netflix than Disney+.

Netflix has 301.6 million global subscribers at the end of 2024. Almost 82 million are from the United States alone.

Disney+ had 124.6 million global subscribers at the end of Q2 2025. Plus, they lost 700k subscribers from the end of 2024.

Netflix has more than twice the number of subscribers as Disney+, that would likely give them an edge over the number of people with access to watch “Madame Web” over “Deadpool and Wolverine.”

It is possible that “Madame Web” was watched slightly more than “Deadpool and Wolverine” on streaming, but it is not necessarily the “loss” for Disney / Marvel as it’s being painted as. There are many variables at play.

While “Madame Web” beat “Deadpool and Wolverine” by 200k streaming views according to Neilsen, it does not mean that the Sony film is suddenly more popular than the Marvel film. When comparing all the data, it is far from it.

What do you think? Comment and let us know!