Netflix has offered a peek inside the black box of its viewing numbers. Its co-chief executive and chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, has revealed what he described as the “most comprehensive look so far” at its top 10 series and movies. Bridgerton was the most popular series, while Extraction was the most popular movie. Both were Netflix original productions.
“We’re trying to be more transparent with talent, with the market,” he told the Code 2021 conference in Beverly Hills. He acknowledged that its viewing metrics were “a big black box, mostly.”
He showed two slides ranking its most popular shows.
The first was based on the Netflix measure of the number of accounts that selected a given title in the first 28 days of release and viewed for at least 2 minutes.
The most popular series was the first seasons of Bridgerton, watched by 82 million accounts. The second most popular was part one of Lupin, viewed by 76 million.
| Series | Accounts m |
|---|---|
| Bridgerton: Season 1 | 82 |
| Lupin: Part 1 | 76 |
| The Witcher: Season 1 | 76 |
| Sex/Life: Season 1 | 67 |
| Stranger Things 3 | 67 |
| Money Heist: Part 4 | 65 |
| Tiger King: Season 1 | 64 |
| The Queen’s Gambit | 62 | Sweet Tooth: Season 1 | 60 |
| Emily in Paris: Season 1 | 58 |
The most viewed movie was Extraction, viewed by 99 million accounts, followed by Bird Box, watched by 89 million.
| Series | Accounts m |
|---|---|
| Extraction | 99 |
| Bird Box | 89 |
| Spenser Confidential | 85 |
| 6 Underground | 83 |
| Murder Mystery | 83 |
| The Old Guard | 78 |
| Enola Holmes | 77 |
| Project Power | 75 | Army of the Dead | 75 |
| Fatherhood | 74 |
The second slide showed the total time spent viewing within the initial 28-day window, an indication of engagement that Netflix has not previously provided.
Bridgerton was also the most popular series in terms of time viewed, with a total of 625 million hours in the first 28 days.
| Film | Viewing hours m |
|---|---|
| Bridgerton: Season 1 | 625 |
| Money Heist: Part 4 | 619 |
| Stranger Things 3 | 582 |
| The Witcher: Season 1 | 541 |
| 13 Reasons Why: Season 2 | 496 |
| 13 Reasons Why: Season 1 | 476 |
| You: Season 2 | 457 |
| Stranger Things 2 | 427 |
| Money Heist: Part 3 | 426 |
| Ginny & Gerogia: Season 1 | 381 |
Bird Box was the most popular movie, viewed for 282 million hours, while Extraction was viewed for 231 million hours.
| Film | Viewing hours m |
|---|---|
| Bird Box | 282 |
| Extraction | 231 |
| The Irishman | 215 |
| The Kissing Booth 2 | 209 |
| 6 Underground | 205 |
| Spenser Confidential | 197 |
| Enola Holmes | 190 |
| Army of the Dead | 187 |
| The Old Guard | 186 | Murder Mystery | 170 |
Ted Sarandos said Netflix is feeling “more confident” in competing with Disney and WarnerMedia, adding, “I have to take them seriously… I don’t want to underestimate any of them — because I think they underestimated us.”
Netflix had 209 million subscribers worldwide in mid-2021. That suggests that almost 4 out of 10 accounts watched at least two minutes of Bridgerton, while approaching half watched Extraction.
The number of individuals that watched was probably higher, assuming more than one person viewed per account.
The viewing hours suggest that on average an account that was used to watch Bridgerton viewed for an average of 7.6 hours, which is close to the total run time of the 8 episodes with an average duration of an hour. Extraction was watched for an average of 2.3 hours, which is interesting, given that it runs for 1 hour 56 minutes.