Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer and co-CEO, shared data on some of the streaming giants most popular titles at this year's Code conference. This is a rare feat for a company that has always kept numbers close to its chest.
One slide was shared by Sarandos and Kara Swisher while Sarandos was addressing the Code stage. It showed numbers from Netflix about how many people viewed the top 10 films and series. This was based on the number accounts that viewed at least two minutes of the title within the first 28 days of it being available on Netflix.
The first season of Bridgerton topped its series list with 82,000,000 accounts having viewed it. Part one of Lupin, The Witcher and part one of The Witcher had 76 million accounts each. With 99 million accounts, Extraction topped the list. Bird Box had 89 million accounts, and Spenser Confidential had 85 million.
The second slide lists Netflix's top 10 movies and series according to their total hours viewed during the first 28 days of their existence. Bridgerton topped the series list with 625 million hours of viewing. Money Heist's fourth installment was followed with 619 millions, followed by Stranger Things' third season with 582 million. Bird Box topped the list of most popular films according to this metric with 282,000,000 hours viewed. With 231 million hours of viewing, Extraction came in second. The Irishman was third with 215,000,000 viewing hours.
Sarandos stated that we are trying to be more transparent and open with the talent and market. It's a huge black box that everyone needs to see.
This sharing of the figure is a significant moment for streaming talent and creatives. Services have always provided limited information on how titles performed on their platforms. This has become a frustration in an ever-changing entertainment industry that has seen many highly anticipated titles that were meant to be released at theaters go straight to streaming services, or even hybrid releases.
The numbers show that there are many factors that can define a hit. They include total hours watched and how long viewers spent watching a particular title in its first month. Production companies and talent might be more interested the total number of people who viewed a title from start to finish or how many total viewers are viewing their shows. Streamers still have to play by their own rules, even though there is no common standard for measuring success.
