Netflix's tennis documentary 'Break Point' fails to make global top 10 of most watched shows in 1st week

Netflix's tennis documentary 'Break Point' failed to get into the top 10 most-watched shows on the platform in the first week of its release.

The tennis docu-series follows top players from ATP and WTA tours, including Taylor Fritz, Paula Badosa and Nick Kyrgios, throughout the 2022 season and provides an unfiltered look into their livelihoods, practice sessions, personal hardships and successes. With the show, the Tennis Association hoped to widen the viewership volume of the sport. However, as per reports, the tennis series has not garnered the expected viewership numbers.

The show did gain a decent audience in Australia and Ireland. It became the 10th most-watched show Down Under and the ninth most in Ireland. However, Break Point's statistics pale in comparison to the numbers that 'Drive to Survive', a Netflix show about Formula 1 from the same makers, collected. Season 4 of Drive to Survive remained in the global top 10 for 2 weeks at the start of the year.

Emulating the slick presentation style of F1 into a sport like tennis is difficult. Translating the drama happening inside the players' heads onto the screen is difficult. While the makers have put in a valiant effort to portray the intricacies of tennis on screen and produce a stirring experience for the viewers, it has not matched up to the thrills and spills of Drive to Survive.

Several critics have commented that the idea of focusing entirely on a new generation of players instead of fan-favorites, including Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, has turned out to be the biggest drawback of the series.

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"Fair to say that it made a pretty minimal splash on Netflix" - Leading journalist on tennis series Break Point

Nick Kyrgios featured in the first episode of Break Point

Leading tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg stated that Break Point made a "minimal splash" on Netflix considering the overall performance of several other shows put out on the platform.

He took to social media on Wednesday to reflect on the poor viewership numbers accumulated by the show. Rothenberg even expressed concern over whether there will be a part 2 for the show after such a poor reception from global audiences for the inaugural season.

"Had been keeping an eye on this. Break Point came out late in a ratings week which might have impacted its numbers in these cycles, but fair to say that it made a pretty minimal splash on Netflix, by context of that overall platform. Does this affect a potential Season 2? TBD," the journalist tweeted.

The first season of the series was released on January 13 and the next installment is expected to be revealed in June this year.