It’s a Sin breaks All 4 streaming records, becoming its most-binged series ever

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It’s a Sin, Channel 4’s recent 1980s-set drama created by Russell T Davies, has broken several viewership records for the broadcaster.

The channel’s proprietary streaming service, All 4, recorded its highest number of monthly views ever in January 2021, nearly doubling the figure from one year previously (with a 91 per cent increase).

It’s a Sin’s cast includes Callum Scott Howells, Olly Alexander and Omari Douglas, who play a group of young gay friends who move to London in the early 1980s and must contend with the Aids epidemic.

The five-part series has already accumulated 6.5 million views on All 4, becoming the service’s biggest ever instant box set.

Read more: Like It’s a Sin? Try these 10 TV shows

It is also All 4’s “third biggest series to date”, according to the broadcaster, and is now its “most binged new series ever”.

It’s a Sin’s first episode also achieved the platform’s biggest drama launch on record.

All 4’s chief content officer Ian Katz said: “The extraordinary performance of It’s A Sin is a reminder that powerful drama with something important to say about the world can also be commercially successful."

In a four-star review of the series for The Independent, Ed Cumming wrote: “Davies has explored gay culture before, with Queer as Folk and the Cucumber-Banana-Tofu trilogy, but It's a Sin feels especially personal. 

“Despite its subject, It’s a Sin hums along, never lingering for long on its downbeats. The opening episode is a happy vision of the consolations of sex and friendship, as well as an evocative recreation of a time and place. For anyone who’s been through the agony of coming out, especially to a hostile family, or who lost loved ones to Aids, I expect it will be moving.”

All five episodes can be streamed now on All 4.