Netflix Pulls The Curtain Back, Reveals Their Most Watched Originals

Bobby Barker

Despite the perception being that they have an absolute strangehold on the world of entertainment right now, streaming giant Netflix has long operated behind a thick curtain when it comes to flexing their streaming figures. Whatever the reason for this may be (whether it’s to avoid giving away information to competitors, to protect themselves from potentially underperforming original content or just to irritate box-office nerds who love to obsess over these details), for a long time the only clue of how a film or show is doing in terms of viewership on the streamer comes in the form of what ends up on their ‘Top of the week’ recommendation lists. And even that, for all we know, could just be Netflix manipulating the data to get what it wants on the front page.

However, during a presentation at this year’s Code Conference (hosted by famed US journalist Kara Swisher), Netflix chief content officer and co-CEO Ted Sarandos surprisingly pulled back that curtain just a smidge, displaying a pair of slides that entailed some fascinating inside data on which shows and films have been drawing in the most attention, and how long they’ve been holding that attention for. Unlike back in the old days, where you could simply measure a film’s financial success by looking at its commercial performance at the box-office (basically, how much money did a film bring in from ticket sales at movie theatres), the monthly subscription on-demand format makes things a bit more complicated. After all, Netflix and other streamers of this ilk can’t really be sure which of its programs, if any one specific entity, compelled a user to part with their hard-earned cash for a subscription. So instead, Netflix’s analysis comes in the form of four lists; two for its original shows, two for its original films, ranking the top 10 in each by two separate metrics.

The first ranks the programs by how many total accounts had viewed at least two minutes of the show/film in its first 28 days on the platform, essentially gauging how many total users were intrigued enough by the premise and marketing to give the program a shot, even if they didn’t necessarily stick with it. A trend immediately jumps out on the film side of things, with big budget, Michael Bay-style action flicks Extraction, 6 Underground (directed by Bay, himself) and Spenser Confidential occupying the 1st, 3rd and 4th spots on the list respectively, suggesting that even on our home screens, we still can’t resist our classic noisy, testosterone-filled shoot-em-up’s. The television list is much more varied at the top, with romantic period drama Bridgerton topping the list, with a mixture of European thrillers (Lupin: Part 1 and Money Heist: Part 4), fantasy and sci-fi standouts (The Witcher: Season 1, Stranger Things 3 and Sweet Tooth: Season 1) and female-led dramas (Sex/Life: Season 1, The Queen’s Gambit and Emily in Paris: Season 1) all finding spots on the top 10, along with wacky doco-series phenomenon Tiger King.

The second list goes a different route and records the total accumulative number of hours the show/film was viewed by users in its first 28 days. It mostly reads predictably similar to the first two lists, although with a few notable exceptions. The film list sees one of Netflix’s first big splashes, 2018’s Bird Box leapfrog Extraction for 1st place by a fairly significant 282 million to 231 million hours watched, despite having an almost identical runtime. 2019 awards contender The Irishman also finds its way onto this list, likely boosted by its rather gargantuan 209-minute length, as does teen rom-com The Kissing Booth 2. The television list sees controversial teen drama 13 Reasons Why claim two spots with its first and second season, possibly an indication, when paired with The Kissing Booth’s appearance in the second list, that teen audiences are more conducive to repeat binges of their favourite shows/films than adults.

But what these lists might ultimately prove, particularly with Bird Box/Extraction phenomenon, is how difficult it is to objectively quantify and understand the popularity and financial impact of these streaming exclusives using the tools these platforms currently have at their disposal. Long gone are the days of pointing to a simple dollar amount to determine whether Titanic or Jurassic Park 2 was the years’ biggest hit. The challenge that Netflix and other streaming services’ face is weeding through confusing, sometimes even contradictory data, to figure what we like, what we don’t like, and of course most importantly, what are we reaching into our wallet for.

The full lists read as follows:

Top 10 Netflix movies – Total accounts with at least two minutes viewed (in millions)

1. Extraction – 99

2. Bird Box – 89

3. Spenser Confidential – 85

4. 6 Underground – 83

5. Murder Mystery – 83

6. The Old Guard – 78

7. Enola Holmes – 77

8. Project Power – 75

9. Army of the Dead – 75

10. Fatherhood – 74