Netflix is no longer resistant to those urging the company to share viewing data.
On Wednesday, the platform revealed viewership transparency across more than 18,000 show and movie titles in a new report titled “What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report.” The report details nearly 100 billion hours of content watched between January to June of this year, including hours viewed for every title, those watched for more than 50,000 hours, the premiere dates for series’ and films under the Netflix Original banner and titles that were available globally.
Amassing 812 million hours viewed was the Canadian thriller series The Night Agent, which has been renewed for a second season. The title was followed by season two of the American comedy-drama Ginny & Georgia at 665 million hours and first season of South Korean drama The Glory at 622 million hours. Additional titles on the list include the inaugural season of the hit comedy-horror series Wednesday (507 million hours), the Shonda Rhimes-created drama Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (503 million hours) and season four of You (440 million hours).
As for movies, viewers spent 249 million hours on Netflix Original The Mother, starring Jennifer Lopez, followed by mystery-thriller Luther: The Fallen Sun (209 million hours) and action-thriller Extraction 2 (205 million hours).
Before the report was released, Netflix was known for its lack of transparency around the viewership of its content, which co-CEO Ted Sarandos addressed in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, per CNBC.
“This is the actual data that we use to run the business,” Sarandos said. “I’m the co-CEO of a public company, so sharing bad information has consequences.”
The information is also timely following the end of the historic SAG-AFTRA strike in November. With 250 million global subscribers, Netflix is more popular than any other streaming service and has plans to factor in the desires of its fans.
“This is probably more information than you need, but I think it creates a better environment for the guilds, for us, for the producers, for creators and for the press,” Sarandos added.
