Streaming platform Netflix has released viewership data for the first time ever after being asked to provide the information for years.
The company report, “What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report,” will be published twice a year going forward, per a company memo. Although Netflix has provided weekly lists of top 10 movies and TV series since 2021, this is the first time the streaming service has released such a comprehensive report.
The document accounts for hours viewed for every title (original and licensed) that was watched for more than 50,000 hours, the premiere date for any Netflix TV series or film, and whether a title was available globally.
This in-depth report includes viewership data of 18,000 titles collected from January until June 2023. The top five most-watched titles are “The Night Agent,” season 1 (812,100,000 hours), “Ginny & Georgia,” season 2 (665,100,000 hours), “The Glory,” season 1 (662,800,000 hours), “Wednesday,” season 1 (507,700,000 hours), and “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” (503,000,000 hours).
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“This is a big step forward for Netflix and our industry. We believe the viewing information in this report — combined with our weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists — will give creators and our industry deeper insights into our audiences, and what resonates with them,” the memo continues.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said viewing hours are the most effective way to measure engagement.
“It’s easy to understand. It mirrors third parties like Nielsen in the US. It makes Netflix very easy to compare to other streaming services,” the exec said during a conference call on Tuesday, per CNN Business.
This move from the streaming giant comes on the heels of the WGA (Writers Guild of America) strike this summer, which was due in part to a lack of transparency from streaming companies sharing their data. Netflix pledged to be more forthcoming with this type of information in the contract, ratified in October.
Sarandos told reporters during the call that the “unintended consequence of not having more transparent data about our engagement was it created an atmosphere of mistrust over time with producers and creators and the press about what was happening.”