- Netflix now ranks shows by the number of views it has received.
- Views are calculated by taking the total hours watched and dividing that by the run time of the show or movie.
- This methodology gives us a better idea of what the most popular shows and movies are based on how many times they were viewed completely.
While Netflix will often brag about how popular certain shows and movies are, we’re rarely given insight into the numbers relating to those successes.
Netflix has previously shared hours viewed which isn’t all that clear of a metric. In its most recent earnings call, Netflix changed the way it ranks its content engagement. Now when you head to Netflix’s Top Ten website you will see a new “views” column. This column divides the hours watched by the runtime to give an idea of how many views a piece of content has. Granted, this assumes that subscribers have watched the content in its entirety.
With this new approach, Netflix has provided a list of its most viewed content of all time. Note, that these are all Netflix Originals and third-party content isn’t included.
| Top 10 Most Popular Series | Hours | Views |
| Squid Game Season 1 | 2 205 200 000 | 265 200 000 |
| Wednesday Season 1 | 1 718 800 000 | 252 100 000 |
| Stranger Things 4 | 1 838 000 000 | 140 700 000 |
| Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story | 1 031 100 000 | 115 600 000 |
| Bridgerton Season 1 | 929 300 000 | 113 300 000 |
| The Queen’s Gambit | 746 400 000 | 112 800 000 |
| Money Heist Part 4 | 710 200 000 | 106 000 000 |
| Lupin Part 1 | 396 300 000 | 99 500 000 |
| Money Heist Part 5 | 900 700 000 | 99 200 000 |
| The Night Agent Season 1 | 803 200 000 | 98 200 000 |
| Top 10 Most Popular Movies | Hours | Views |
| Red Notice | 454 200 000 | 230 900 000 |
| Don’t Look Up | 408 600 000 | 171 400 000 |
| The Adam Project | 281 000 000 | 157 600 000 |
| Bird Box | 325 300 000 | 157 400 000 |
| The Gray Man | 299 500 000 | 139 300 000 |
| We Can Be Heroes | 231 200 000 | 137 300 000 |
| Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery | 320 300 000 | 136 300 000 |
| Extraction | 266 900 000 | 135 700 000 |
| The Mother | 256 600 000 | 131 600 000 |
| Spenser Confidential | 238 900 000 | 129 100 000 |
We’re rather surprised that Red Notice is the most popular movie released by Netflix and it’s not even close. It’s also interesting to see relatively new content like The Night Agent entering the Top Ten in series alongside older content like the first season of Bridgerton.
The gap between Squid Game and Wednesday is also relatively small compared to the rest of the list. Even the juggernaut that is Stranger Things can’t compete with the Addams Family and twisted game shows.
What is rather interesting to note from Netflix’s earnings presentation is that the platform now boasts 95 percent content parity by viewing globally. This still doesn’t mean everything is available everywhere and we doubt it will ever be considering licensing agreements and the like. While good news for viewers, it’s also good news for advertisers who want to align their advertising with the most popular content more easily.
We’re glad to see Netflix offering up a bit more of a look behind the curtain. If anything it lets us see whether the hype we see online is organic or fuelled by marketing. Of course, this data doesn’t say how good something is, only how long it’s been watched for although unless millions are clicking a movie and then clicking away, the longer the watch time the better it’s likely to be.
