So, Netflix finally spilled the beans on what we’ve been bingeing, shining a light on hits like The Night Agent, Wednesday, and Queen Charlotte that have had us glued to our screens.
The TV industry got a glimpse into what’s rocking the boat with subscribers. Netflix, often called out for being super secretive, shared some numbers this week, opening up a bit about their most-watched shows.
A Glimpse, But Not The Full Picture
The report dropped a bunch of info but left some gaps too.
Netflix ranked the shows based on the total hours people spent watching. The FBI thriller, The Night Agent, clocked a whopping 812 million hours, claiming the top spot.
But here’s the catch – the data only covers January to June 2023. So, the heavyweights like The Crown and Stranger Things aren’t on the list because they didn’t release new episodes during that time.
Instead, newer series like You, Ginny & Georgia, and Love Is Blind made it to the top 20.
Season Splits and Show Lengths Matter
Another reason why your fave shows might not rank high? Netflix splits them by season.
For instance, The Crown most-watched season five hit 76 million hours – decent but not crazy high. But if you add all five seasons, it’s a total of 214 million hours. See the difference?
Same deal with Stranger Things. Season four’s 133 million hours are cool, but the show’s whole run gets 347 million hours – way higher.
TV vs. Films: The Battle of Duration
Films face an uphill battle in this ratings game. A TV series with loads of episodes has an edge over a single movie.
The top film, The Mother, with Jennifer Lopez, grabbed 250 million hours but couldn’t match up to The Night Agent eight-plus hours.
And the length difference messes things up. The hours watched don’t tell us how many people actually saw a show.
Take Luther: The Fallen Sun – it snagged over 209 million hours, but as it’s a two-hour film, we can roughly guess about 100 million households clicked play. But that’s assuming everyone watched the whole thing, which is unlikely.
The Missing Pieces
These numbers are cool, but they’re missing bits. They don’t tell us completion rates or how many folks saw a show in real numbers. Like, someone might’ve switched off after 10 mins, while another might’ve watched it twice.
So, it’s hard to nail down the exact audience, unlike with regular TV shows.
The stats give us a sneak peek into what’s hot on Netflix, but they’re just a part of the bigger picture. There’s more to the story we don’t quite have yet.
