The Queen's Gambit earns Netflix its 1st best limited series Emmy

Checkmate.

The Queen's Gambit, the hit miniseries centered around a young chess prodigy, won the Emmy for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series on Sunday, beating out competition that included HBO's Mare of Easttown and Disney's WandaVision. This marked Netflix's first time winning the limited series Emmy.

The streamer first entered this category at the Emmys in 2018 with Godless. Since then, it's been nominated every year, in 2019 scoring a nod for When They See Us and in 2020 earning nominations for Unbelievable and Unorthodox. But the past two Emmys saw the limited series prize go to HBO shows, Watchmen and Chernobyl, while an FX series, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, won in 2018.

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While The Queen's Gambit was the frontrunner to win best limited series, some pundits thought the buzzy crime drama Mare of Easttown could beat it. The Queen's Gambit's win also comes just days after a chess champion, Nona Gaprindashvili, sued Netflix for defamation over a line in the show falsely stating she never faced men, which she criticized as "grossly sexist and belittling." Netflix said it believes the "claim has no merit" and that it will "vigorously defend the case."

This limited series win was another significant victory for Netflix, which going into Sunday's Emmys had never won the award for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Drama Series, or Outstanding Limited Series. But the streamer scored a whopping 129 nominations this year, and The Crown also won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. These wins helped Netflix tie a record from CBS for most Emmy wins by one network in a single year. Apple's Ted Lasso also won Outstanding Comedy Series, making this the first time ever that the top three series Emmys all went to shows from streaming services.