This tweet is misleading because it lacks context about how viewership was measured and compares two different metrics.
Kendrick’s 133.5M viewers were counted under Nielsen’s updated 2025 system, which includes out-of-home (OOH) viewing (bars, hotels, restaurants) and streaming. In contrast, MJ’s 133.4M in 1993 was strictly U.S.-only and based on in-home TV ratings, meaning it didn’t include OOH or streaming.
Claiming Kendrick ‘surpassed’ MJ isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison—it’s just a different way of counting viewers.