How Peaky Blinders turned out to be a streaming success over the years with improving ratings

Neither creator Steven Knight nor the cast of BBC's Peaky Blinders could have anticipated the global success that the crime series became on Netflix over the years.

While Knight's crime saga about a real-life Birmingham gang was a UK production on BBC Two, Netflix bought the rights and premiered it in the US in 2014. After struggling to find an audience in the initial years, the series saw breakthrough success in 2016.

In 2022, following the release of its final season, Peaky Blinders reached the second spot on Nielsen's streaming charts, following Netflix's Stranger Things. At that point, the show had garnered 904 million minutes of viewing time.

More on this in our story.

---

From BBC Two to a streaming success: Exploring Peaky Blinders' journey over the years

Hard to believe, but Knight's Peaky Blinders had very little viewership when it was streamed on Netflix US in 2014.

Netflix was not always the streaming giant that it is today, competing with the likes of HBO now. Instead, in 2014, 'Netflix Original' was a rare sight and entertainment for people meant cable TV.

However, Netflix made a decision in the early years of its making and bought rights for overseas shows to stream them on their platform for the North American audiences. Peaky Blinders was one such show, and it was probably the earliest show on the platform to feature the Netflix Original logo.

It premiered on Netflix US in September and October 2014 but received very little fanfare. While the US audiences had never heard about this BBC Two show (which is less popular than BBC One), actors Cillian Murphy and Sam Neil were not familiar with the American audiences.

While the show had its audience, it still remained in its niche and was on the verge of going into oblivion.

However, when Peaky Blinders Season 3 premiered on Netflix US in 2016, the conversation around the show changed drastically. More and more people started discovering the show and Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby was hailed as the modern archetype in the gangster genre.

Since the show was not produced by Netflix, it received very little marketing. This was the time when the platform was building its original library with shows like The Crown and Stranger Things. These Netflix originals also paved the way for Knight's series and more people started watching it as a Netflix original.

Addressing this shift in popularity from Season 2 to Season 3, Murphy discussed with Entertainment Weekly:

''It was 100 percent by word of mouth, because that is true. We were a little show on BBC Two...''

He added:

''When we went to the premiere of series 3 in Birmingham and there were thousands of people there and they were dressed as Peaky Blinders...it was people all over the world having Peaky Blinder parties and weddings and there [were] all these pop-up shops and bars. Between series 2 and 3 for me was really when it started to become this phenomenon.''

As Murphy noted, the series became popular through word of mouth and celebrities like Brad Pitt, David Bowie and Snoop Dogg started recommending the show in interviews. Bowie was such a big fan of the show that he even gave his permission to use his music in the show, shortly before he died.

This word-of-mouth campaign was the making of this show and there was no going back from there on. Netflix naturally noticed the show's popularity and increased press ahead of Season 5.

The addition of actors like Adrien Brody, Sam Claflin and Stephen Graham also pushed the series, and it eventually became the most popular series globally for Netflix in 2021.

Peaky Blinders truly became popular after Season 2, and there was no going back from there. It continued to receive well-deserved praise and appreciation and an upcoming feature film titled The Immortal Man, will continue the saga.

---

For the latest scoops on your favorite TV shows and movies, follow SoapCentral.

Also Read: Peaky Blinders: Exploring the entire historical timeline of the BBC crime drama