Netflix alters how it measures content’s popularity to highlight hours watched

Adjoa Andoh and Regé-Jean Page in Bridgerton S1

Netflix is changing the way it reports on the popularity of its originals, shifting to reporting on hours viewed rather than the number of accounts that choose to watch them.

The streamer has subsequently detailed its top 10 original series and films as of September 27 in terms of how many hours a title was viewed in its first 28 days on Netflix, with the first season of Bridgerton taking the top spot with a total of 625 million hours.

It is joined in the top five by Money Heist season four (619 million), season three of Stranger Things (582 million), the first season of The Witcher (541 million) and season two of 13 Reasons Why (496 million).

Netflix previously reported on the popularity of its shows based on the number of accounts that had watched at least two minutes of the programme in its first 28 days on Netflix.

“We think engagement as measured by hours viewed is a slightly better indicator of the overall success of our titles and member satisfaction. It also matches how outside services measure TV viewing and gives proper credit to rewatching. In addition, we will start to release title metrics more regularly outside of our earnings report so our members and the industry can better measure success in the streaming world,” Netflix said in a statement.

By this previous measurement, the first season of Bridgerton remained Netflix’s most popular original series, followed by Lupin S1, The Witcher S1, Sex/Life S1 and Stranger Things S3.

However, none of the data accounts for recent South Korean hit Squid Game, which Netflix said is now its biggest TV show ever after 142 million member households globally chose to watch the title in its first four weeks.

Netflix has not released the total number of hours Squid Game has been viewed since its launch on the streamer on September 17.

The show is ranked as Netflix’s number one programme in 94 countries, including the US, while it has also spawned endless memes and clips on TikTok with more than 42 billion views.

Demand for consumer products to celebrate the fandom for Squid Game is high and those items are on their way to retail now, Netflix said.

Buoyed by the popularity of non-English-language hits such as Squid Game and Money Heist, Netflix said it is now producing local TV and film in about 45 countries.

Meanwhile, Netflix has begun testing its games offering in select countries and recently acquired US-based Night School Studio, maker of games such as Oxenfree, to help build out its game development capabilities.

Games on Netflix will be included in members’ subscriptions and will not have advertisements or in-app purchases, so that game play is purely focused on enjoyment versus monetisation, according to the streamer.

“It remains very early days for this initiative and, like other content categories we’ve expanded into, we plan to try different types of games, learn from our members and improve our game library,” Netflix said.

“Assuming no new Covid waves or unforeseen events that result in large-scale production shutdowns, we currently anticipate a more normalised content slate in 2022, with a greater number of originals in 2022 vs 2021 and a release schedule that is more balanced over the course of the year, as compared to 2021.”