Netflix has, up until now, been rather secretive about its actual viewing figures on its streaming platform, however, last night they released ‘What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report‘, which details the number of hours of content which was watched from January to June 2023.
This new report, which they will be releasing twice a year, details the hours viewed for every title (original and licensed) which were watched for over 50,000 hours, with the initial report covering 18,000 titles, representing 99% of all viewing on Netflix, and nearly 100 billion hours viewed. Whilst the data is not perfect, it does help lift the lid on some of the most popular content people around the world have been watching.
There are a few things to note when viewing the list. One of the key problems is that the metric they are using is “hours viewed”. That does somewhat skew the data toward longer-running seasons of shows over miniseries or films. It is also a mix of titles which have been on the platform for the entire 6-month period up to shows which have only launched in June 2023, a few weeks before the end of the reporting period, meaning they had far less time to build up their numbers. However, it is still a very interesting snapshot of Netflix’s data which we have never had before.
So, bearing all that in mind, what films and TV shows do stand out on the list?
The top show, with over a staggering 812M hours viewed was Gabriel Basso-led action-thriller ‘The Night Agent‘ Season 1, which Netflix renewed for a second season just days after it launched, and from the data, you can see why! Launching late March 2023, meaning it only really had 3 months in the reporting period, it is still sitting 147M hours viewed ahead of the second place show, ‘Ginny & Georgia‘ Season 2, which launched January 2023, so it had a full six months to rack up its 665M viewing number. That is very impressive going for ‘The Night Agent’, and you can totally understand why the streaming service ordered more!
It should also come as no surprise that ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story‘ managed to rack up 503M hours viewed despite only launching in April 2023, given the huge popularity of the main series. ‘Wednesday‘ Season 1 launched in November 2022, so the initial rush of hours viewed on that series would be missing from this report, however, it still racked up 507M hours views from Jan-June 2023. Another notable hit was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘FUBAR‘ Season 1, which launched in late May 2023, so really only had one month of reporting, yet still pulled in 266M hours viewed. Out of the other brand-new shows, the excellent dark comedy/drama ‘The Diplomat‘ Season 1 launched in April 2023, pulling in 214M hours viewed for the reporting period, and the dramedy ‘XO, Kitty’ from Jenny Han landed 200M hours viewed launching in May 2023.
Looking at returning shows, whilst ‘Ginny & Georgia’ does seem to be at the top of the list, however, if you break things down by hours viewed per month, it’s ‘Never Have I Ever‘ Season 4 which stands out, having landed 168M hours viewed in just over half a month (7th June). ‘Black Mirror‘ Season 6 was also riding high, with 139M hours viewed, and that’s despite launching mid-June 2023! ‘Outer Banks‘ Season 3 launched in late February and has 402M hours viewed overall, which still puts it in the top twenty when you break things down by month, and ‘Sweet Tooth‘ Season 2 sits around the same place having launched in late April, with 182M hours viewed overall.
When it comes to movies, there are a few which hit the top of the list, despite being at the disadvantage of being shorter than a series, so having fewer hours to view. Chris Hemsworth’s ‘Extraction 2’ had a whopping 201M hours viewed, despite launching in mid-June, so by any metric, that is a hit film. ‘The Mother’ starring Jennifer Lopez launched in mid-May and had 249M hours viewed, which is also a solid number. ‘Luther: The Fallen Sun’ also pulled respectable numbers, launching in March 2023, and 209M hours viewed overall.
Topping the non-English language shows on total hours viewed was the South Korean series ‘The Glory’, which launched in late December 2022, and pulled in nearly 623M hours viewed. However, breaking it down by month, the Colombian drama ‘Fake Profile’ pulled in 206M hours viewed in just one month, and Mexican series ‘The Surrogacy’ got 174M hours viewed with only half a month of data, and that is also without either them having global releases on the streaming service!
If you’re wondering about some of the beloved, but cancelled Netflix shows, we now have some data on those too. For example, whilst ‘Lockwood & Co‘ did get 113M hours viewed in total, that launched at the end of January 2023, so that is spread across five months. ‘Shadow and Bone‘ Season 2 pulled in 192M views launching mid-March, so faired rather better, but still not enough to save it.
So that gives you a bit of a snapshot of Netflix data from January to June 2023. If you want to take a look at the full list yourself, you can download the report here.
