Netflix Inc. released a trove of viewership data Tuesday, listing the total hours viewed for nearly all of its series and movies for the first time.
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has been criticized for years for its lack of transparency when it comes to what its subscribers are watching, and that was a major issue in this year’s strikes by Hollywood writers and actors. The numbers are also important to advertisers, as Netflix’s ad-supported tier has exploded in popularity.
The “What We Watched” report released Tuesday ranks every Netflix title with at least 50,000 hours viewed from January through June. The report will be updated every six months.
In all, it catalogs data for more than 18,000 titles, and nearly 100 billion hours viewed.
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There are a few caveats. There’s really nothing to compare the numbers to, so it can’t be seen as a Nielsen-ratings-like measurement. And total hours viewed can skew results toward shows with more episodes, as well as movies and hour-long dramas rather than half-hour comedies, so it’s not necessarily a direct measure of popularity.
Release dates also are a factor — “Suits,” for example, topped Netflix’s weekly top 10 list for 15 weeks over the summer and fall, but ranked only 73rd on the list, since it didn’t make its Netflix debut until June 23.
“The Night Agent,” a political-conspiracy thriller released in March, topped the list, with 812,100,000 hours viewed. Season 2 of the family dramedy “Ginny & Georgia” was second, with 665,100,000 hours, followed by the Korean revenge thriller “The Glory,” with 622,800,000 hours. The Addams Family spinoff “Wednesday” and the “Bridgerton” prequel “Queen Charlotte” rounded out the top five.
Of the 10 most-watched titles, nine were Netflix originals — the only outlier was Season 3 of the Spanish-language Telemundo drama “La Reina del Sur,” which ranked seventh, with 429,600,000 hours. Netflix noted that 30% of its overall viewing was for non-English-speaking titles.
Netflix’s most-watched movie was “The Mother,” an action drama starring Jennifer Lopez, with 249,900,000 hours.
For more: Here’s what’s worth streaming in December 2023: Not much new, yet still a lot to watch
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