Netflix
has released its first-ever "engagement report" titled "What We Watched." The report, or the spreadsheet, provides insights into the viewership data of shows and movies, around 18,000 of them, on the streaming platform, revealing how many hours people exactly watched these titles.
This is the first of the upcoming reports that are set to be released every six months, ranking the shows and movies based on their viewing hours.
The report will include the number of hours viewed for each title (original and licensed) in those six months, the premiere date, and if they are available globally.
Netflix raked in 1 billion viewing hours between Jan to June this year
The data for the first six months of 2023 has 18,214 shows and movies, clocking in over a billion viewing hours, and that is about 99 percent of all viewing, says Netflix. The non-English titles captured 30 percent of all viewing hours.
During a call with reporters on Tuesday,
Ted Sarandos
, co-CEO of Netflix, said, “This is probably more information than you need.” Sarandos believes sharing this information will benefit everyone involved, including the guilds, producers, creators, and press.
Sarandos clarified that Netflix uses hours viewed as its key metric. This mirrors third-party services like Nielsen in the US, making it easier to compare Netflix to other streaming platforms, he said.
The Night Agent, JLo’s The Mother, tops Netflix's chart
The action-thriller series The Night Agent: Season 1 was the most-watched show with 812,100,000 hours. Jennifer Lopez starrer The Mother, even though being at the 20th position, was the highest-ranked movie on the list, having 249,900,000 viewing hours.
The debut season of
Jenny Ortega
's
Wednesday
clocked in 507,700,000 hours. The prequel series to Bridgerton, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, was in fifth place with 503,000,000 hours viewed. Extraction 2, featuring
Chris Hemsworth
, was placed at 29th and had 201,800,000 viewing hours
Rana Naidu, RRR, and Indian Matchmaking are some of the most watched Indian titles on Netflix
The first season of Rana Naidu was the most-watched Indian original title, positioned at 330 positions, with a watch time of 4,63,000 hours, followed by Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga and Mission Majnu, with a watch time of 4,17,000 and 3,12,000 hours, respectively and Indian Matchmaking's third season raked in a watch time of 30.6 million hours.
Rani Mukherjee starrer Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway, SS Rajamouli's RRR,
Ranbir Kapoor
starrer
Tu Jhooti Main Makkaar
, and Shehzada starring Karthik Aryan clocked in watch times of 2,94,000, 2,71,000, and 2,48,0000 hours, respectively.
Netflix’s report aim to address the lack of transparency
Netflix has been criticized for lack of transparency, especially during Hollywood strikes. Though it has provided weekly top 10 lists since 2021, this is the first time it's released a comprehensive report, and the company plans to continue this in the future. Sarandos said the lack of data created mistrust, so the reports aim to address this.
Writers Guild's new contract requires streamers to provide show performance data. Though this was already planned for several years and not influenced by Hollywood strikes, said Sarandos.
It is advised not to compare shows and movies using the new report's data, as some projects have limited viewership data and are only available in certain markets. “Success on Netflix comes in all shapes and sizes, and is not determined by hours viewed alone,” the company said in a press release. “We have enormously successful movies and TV shows with both lower and higher hours viewed. It’s all about whether a movie or TV show thrilled its audience,” the blog reads.
English (US) ·