Photo by Thibault Penin on Unsplash
For the first time ever in its streaming era, Netflix on Wednesday released the viewership numbers for its titles – 18,000 in all, or 99 per cent of its entire catalogue.
According to the streaming platform's, 'What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report,' the cumulative viewing time for these titles totals nearly 100 billion hours.
Netflix said that it will be publishing the report twice a year now, giving details of number of hours spent watching each title, both original and licensed, totaling over 50,000 hours. It includes the premiere dates of all Netflix TV series or films and specifies whether a particular title was globally available.
Netflix claimed is the only streaming company to be transparent in such a way with its streaming data except YouTube.
According to the raw data in the report, the show that topped the chart is 'The Night Agent: Season 1,' followed closely by 'Ginny & Georgia: Season 2,' a family drama that has kept viewers hooked. Securing the third position is the Korean series 'The Glory: Season 1' adding an international flavor to the list.
'Wednesday: Season 1' holds the fourth spot and the fifth position is claimed by 'Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story,' a show that explores the captivating Bridgerton universe.
'You: Season 4,' 'La Reina del Sur: Season 3,' 'Outer Banks: Season 3,' 'Ginny & Georgia: Season 1,' and 'FUBAR: Season 1' and 'Manifest: Season 4' rounded off the top 10.
Netflix in a statement said there was a significant correlation between the report's top 10 most-watched titles over a six-month period and their weekly rankings.
More than 60 per cent of the titles released between January and June 2023 found their way onto the weekly top 10 lists, suggesting a remarkable consistency in viewer preferences, as these titles maintain their popularity not just over an extended duration but also week-to-week.
Before releasing the report, Netflix did not subject its data to third-party auditing or present it to the Media Ratings Council.
When questioned by Variety about the decision, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said, "I’m the co-CEO of a public company, so sharing bad information has consequence. So this is the actual data that we use to run the business."
Sarandos claimed that the recent release of the new report by Netflix was not primarily driven by the negotiations during the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and SAG-AFTRA strikes, where transparency in streaming viewership data was a key point.
According to him, this move has been part of an ongoing process spanning several years to bring in more transparency to the operation of the platform.
Writers and actors got paid more for their streaming work after strikes by groups like the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA, with the number of people watching these shows in the US, provided by services like Netflix, also influencing their pay.
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