The fourth season of "Arrested Development" was predicted to be among the most-watched original Netflix series.
And according to preliminary data from Procera, a company that monitors networks and Internet service providers, that may turn out to be true.
More than a third of people who streamed Netflix on Sunday on one DSL network viewed at least part of the first episode in the series, Cam Cullen, vice president of global marketing at Procera Networks, said in a blog post on Tuesday.
That figure was three times higher than for the Netflix series "House of Cards," the $100 million political thriller starring Kevin Spacey that premiered in February, according to Procera.
"That's a pretty astounding number for a single show," Cullen told The Huffington Post.
And, according to Procera, people binged: About 10 percent of people on one network watched all 15 episodes of "Arrested Development's" fourth season.
Cullen's blog post came with the caveat that the "data is not a comprehensive report on the success of 'Arrested Development,'" a series that originally aired on Fox from 2003 to 2006. But he told HuffPost he's confident the sample is representative of the bigger picture on the Web.
Netflix didn't respond to a request from The Huffington Post about the weekend streaming data.
This is the fourth original series Netflix has released this year. The company plans at least three more. This is an increase from only one original series in 2012. According to the Associated Press, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is investing $200 million in original content this year.
Investors, analysts and competitors are closely watching how Netflix's original content performs. Netflix and other streaming video options, including Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime Instant Video, are becoming increasingly popular as alternatives to expensive cable and satellite services.
"The big challenge for any of these services is how do they move beyond just having those back catalogues," said Greg Ireland, research manager of multiscreen video at IDC, the technology market research firm.
Original content, Ireland said, is not only a great way to distinguish themselves from the competition, but "also establish themselves as a legitimate outlet for original content outside of original television."
With original content, Ireland added, "you increase your appeal as an additive service to what we may be getting already from traditional paid television services."
Hulu, the streaming video platform that's a joint venture between Walt Disney Co., Comcast's NBCUniversal, and News Corp., recently announced two new titles to its lineup of original shows. Some of Hulu's content is available for free, but subscribers must pay $7.99 per month to watch some shows and movies as well as view the service on devices other than computers.
Hulu in April said its Hulu Plus service has attracted more than 4 million paying subscribers.
Last month, Amazon Prime Instant Video, the streaming service the online retail giant offers with its $79 per year Prime membership, posted the pilots to 14 original shows. Viewers can vote and comment on the pilots, and Amazon will use that information to determine which shows will become full series, according to USA Today.
Amazon doesn't disclose how many Prime members it has, but Business Insider quoted a Morningstar analyst in March who estimated the number to be over 10 million.
Even YouTube recently announced that it will begin experimenting with a premium subscription model.
Despite the anticipation of "Arrested Development," IDC's Ireland cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from the performance of one program.
"Just because I didn't watch it the second it was launched doesn't mean I won't enjoy it down the road," he said.