Streaming services (but in general large companies) don’t like to give exact numbers of theirs public. Yes, one thing is the number of active users or personal statistics like Spotify Wrapped, but what about the total hours of visualization?
It’s another matter, which overflows dangerously towards the concept of transparency, word that is whispered with fear in the corridors of one big tech. But it’s 2023, artificial intelligence pops up under every rock and there was one of the strikes most important ever by the trade union screenwriters of Hollywood. And here it is Netflix has gone where no one else has ever dared: it has published viewing data.
In a statement released just yesterday, the streaming giant declared that starting from this moment will publish twice the year a report entitled What we watched: A Netflix Engagement Report (What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report).
The report shows three metrics: hours of observation, if a show is available at global level And exit dateand covers beyond 18,000 titles (99% of the total, i.e. content with more than 50,000 hours of viewing) for almost 100 billion Of hours of display. One glimpse incredible on user habits.
But what are the most viewed titles? In this first report, the first season of The Night Agent tops the list with over 812 million hours viewed, followed by the second season of Ginny & Georgia (665.1 million hours viewed), from the first season of The Glory (622.8 million hours viewed), from the first season of Wednesday (507.7 million hours viewed) and from Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (503 million hours viewed). Below we report the top 10.
| Title | Available Globally? | Release Date | Hours Viewed |
| The Night Agent: Season 1 | Yes | 2023-03-23 | 812,100,000 |
| Ginny & Georgia: Season 2 | Yes | 2023-01-05 | 665,100,000 |
| The Glory: Season 1 // 더글로리: 시즌 1 | Yes | 2022-12-30 | 622,800,000 |
| Wednesday: Season 1 | Yes | 2022-11-23 | 507,700,000 |
| Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story | Yes | 2023-05-04 | 503,000,000 |
| You: Season 4 | Yes | 2023-02-09 | 440,600,000 |
| La Reina del Sur: Season 3 | No | 2022-12-30 | 429,600,000 |
| Outer Banks: Season 3 | Yes | 2023-02-23 | 402,500,000 |
| Ginny & Georgia: Season 1 | Yes | 2021-02-24 | 302,100,000 |
| FUBAR: Season 1 | Yes | 2023-05-25 | 266,200,000 |
But why this choice, and what they have to do with it artificial intelligence and it Screenwriters’ strike? Let’s start from the beginning.
Netflix already publishes a report with the top 10 weekly views, but the one released yesterday represents a much broader view of viewership data.
The company claims they haven’t done this so far because they originally wanted to understand how to move in the new sector and their approach was liked by the creators as it took the pressure off the weekend box office numbers. But now they have decided to create “a better environment for the union [degli sceneggiatori]for the producers, for the creators, for the press and for us“.
The point is that it strike of the screenwriters, for which an agreement was reached in September, wanted to counteract two key points: the use of AI (for example a manager uses ChatGPT to create a draft screenplay, then sends it to a screenwriter who writes it and the rights belong to the manager) and the transparency on display data.
A creator who knows how much his own is seen show has greater bargaining power (other than box office anxiety, one might say).
The CEO of Netflix is careful not to say that the release of this data is connected to the recent agreementbut the times are suspect, and he says that the choice to show hours viewed depends on whether it’s a metric that “allows you to compare Netflix with other streaming services“.
At this point it remains to be seen whether other platforms like Amazon, Apple, Disney or Warner Bros they will be willing to take the same step, but since they have signed the agreement we bet that sooner or later they will. If you are interested, find the document at this address (it will download an .xlsx file).
Netflix
