Netflix just gave entertainment analysts an early Christmas present. For the first time, the streamer has shared a program-by-program breakdown of its traffic. The What We Watched report lists the viewership received by more than 18,000 shows and movies during the first half of 2023.
What We Watched represents a major reversal for Netflix, which was previously tight-lipped when it came to specific viewership figures. Instead of sticking to that policy, the entertainment innovator is providing the public with the same data it uses to evaluate its programming.
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The advent of the What We Watched report can be partially attributed to the recent WGA and SAG strikes, which turned streamers like Netflix into Hollywood boogeymen. Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos told Variety that viewership data was a prominent topic of discussion during the entertainment industry negotiations, but the strikes were not the “main factor” leading to the release of What We Watched.
“This has been on a continuum for several years,” Sarandos said. “So this is not driven by anything differently than that. I think it’s really important, that’s why I did say earlier, that lack of data, lack of transparency, the unintended consequence was this kind of mistrust, this environment of mistrust around the data. So 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.”
As a member of the press, I am indeed thrilled to have access to six months of Netflix viewership figures. So without further ado, here are some key trends that thrived on Netflix between January and June of 2023:
Netflix has figured out how to drive traffic to its originals.
Once upon a time, licensed content accounted for four-fifths of Netflix’s U.S. viewership. These days, the balance has shifted. The five shows that got the most views on Netflix during the first six months of 2023 are all part of the streamer’s original content lineup.
The leader of that standout group was The Night Agent, a slick thriller that picked up 812.1 million hours of Netflix watch time during the first half of 2023. Bolstered by that big boost, The Night Agent became one of the six most-watched Netflix shows of all time.
Among licensed shows, the Telemundo-produced telenovela La Reina del Sur placed the highest on the What We Watched list. It finished in seventh place with 429.6 million hours of watch time.
On average, the global Netflix audience prefers shows over movies.
The top 13 finishers in the inaugural What We Watched report were all series. The highest-ranking movie on the chart was The Mother, a Netflix original that came out in May. Thanks in part to the presence of leading lady Jennifer Lopez, The Mother collected 249.9 million hours of watch time during Netflix’s six-month measurement period.
Resistance from film festivals and theatrical distributors slowed down the early progress of Netflix’s film unit, and based on the streamer’s latest numbers, it is still feeling the effects of that challenging period. But with Oscar season on the horizon and plenty more movies coming only to Netflix, the next What We Watched report could include some highly-ranked films.
Korean culture is still on top of the world.
Aside from the United States, one other country stole the show in the What We Watched report. Four Netflix originals from South Korea ranked among the top 25 most-watched programs worldwide during the first half of 2023. That group included the thriller series The Glory (#3 on the list with 622.8 million hours of watch time), the self-explanatory Crash Course in Romance (#16), and my personal favorite Korean show, the over-the-top test of endurance Physical 100 (#15).
Netflix also saw strong returns with K-dramas like Crash Landing On You and favorites like Squid Game. For global audiences, the Korean entertainment industry has a lot more to offer than just K-pop (even if that genre is also breaking records on the internet).
The Netflix rabbit hole is deeper than you might have thought.
18,214 shows and movies factored into the What We Watched report for the first half of 2023. 89 of those programs (about .5% of the total library) generated at least 100 million hours of Netflix watch time over six months. That may seem like a lot of hits, but Netflix’s long tail is much more massive than its top end. More than half of the entrants in Netflix’s library generated fewer than one million hours of six-month watch time.
For the seasoned streaming viewer, it can sometimes feel like there’s no good content left to watch on Netflix. But now that we see this data for the first time, the depths of Netflix’s streaming library are apparent. If you’re looking for something new, you can try one of the 3,800 programs that only managed 100,000 hours of first-half watch time. You may need to learn a language like German or Hindi first.
Netflix’s oldies are still goodies
Sure, the shows leading the What We Watched ranking tended to come out in 2022 or 2023, but there are plenty of old favorites near the top of the list. The first season of Bridgerton got 136.6 million hours of first-half watch time nearly three years after its release, and the first season of You outranked other 2010s Netflix originals with 123.5 million hours of first-half watch time. Licensed favorites like Suits also placed highly, and that particular show is due for an uptick whenever the second-half What We Watched report sees the light of day.
Until Netflix publishes its statistical sequel, we’ll have to settle for the first season. You can discover some of Netflix’s findings and access the full What We Watched report by clicking here.
