Netflix Releases Top 10 Most-Watched Shows For The First Time

Netflix has long been known that aside from being the leader in streaming services, they have also been lacking in providing viewership data. In stark contrast with other service providers who race to show their numbers and percentage, Netflix seems to not give a single damn about it.

Until two days ago, they released a list of top 10 most-watched programs in six different categories.

The company has six different lists under the following categories: films, series, documentaries, reality shows, non-English language shows and overall. Netflix also informs that they count their viewership based on how many people managed to finish 70% of one episode.

Netflix is working on the list and they have decided to upload a new list every other Wednesday. Although, Netflix doesn’t include any number in their list and they are simply ranked in that way. However, this new openness has actually been hinted since the third quarter in 2018 when Netflix mentions there were 80 million accounts who streamed Summer of Love.

The next time they continued with such info was when Bird Box was making it big and Netflix tweeted:

Getting more “transparent”

The leading streaming service provider has long been known to keeping their viewership number a secret. But this new transparency is breathing fresh air. Previously, despite many company’s attempts at quantifying the number of viewers on certain shows, Netflix has always denied those reports.

Here’s an official statement regarding their new move in posting most-watched shows.

We’re trying to get to a place where we could be a lot more transparent, both with our producers and with our customers. … Over the next several months, we’re going to be rolling out more specific granular data reporting first to our producers and then to our members and of course to the press over time and be more fully transparent about what people are watching on Netflix around the world.

Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos

This new move perhaps allow them to gain one bargaining chip against their competitors. Creators have long been wondering how their shows are doing and these numbers will give them more insight. On the other hand, it also means they are revealing more to their competitors.

But most of all, the team has decided to only post as long as viewers are happy with the list.

It’s a test as we want to make sure this information is useful for you. So we may tweak it in the weeks ahead. eg. we’re not including kids right now. And if people don’t find it useful we’ll stop.

— Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) May 9, 2019