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Netflix, for years, was notoriously tight-lipped about its viewership. But after a few years of dropping stats for some of its programming, Netflix launched a website in mid-November posting charts of its most popular shows and movies from the past week, as well as a global ranking of its all-time most watched titles.
The charts, which are updated every week and ranked by the total number of hours that subscribers spent watching them, represent an unprecedented trove of data about what’s popular on Netflix. The site details the most popular titles in the last week not only globally but also for more than 90 countries. And it’s meant to help subscribers like you get a better sense of the biggest hits on the world’s largest subscription streaming service, in the hopes you’ll discover something new to watch.
The company updates its weekly “Top 10 on Netflix” every Tuesday, based on hours viewed from Monday through Sunday the previous week for original and licensed titles. The rankings are broken down into top 10 charts for films in English, TV in English, films in non-English languages and TV in non-English languages.
A ranking of all-time most watched titles also lives on the site, detailing shows that have the most viewing hours in their first 28 days of release. If a new season releases its episodes in two parts on different dates, Netflix counts the watch time of the first volume’s episodes for their first 28 days, then it counts the watch time of the second volume’s episodes for their first 28 days. These all-time rankings are also updated every Tuesday, whenever any programs make it into the charts during the week prior. Why you’ll see Wednesday in the rankings but not 1899
Shows and movies need sustained popularity in many countries to crack into the all-time most watched charts. That means you can see titles with “Top 10” badges in Netflix’s app for days, but they still may not be generating enough hours of viewing to make the all-time rankings.
For example, 1899, a period mystery series, has generated 211.8 million hours in 18 days since its release through Sunday. It still has more time in its 28-day window to generate watch-time — but TV shows need nearly half a billion hours watched to make it onto the all-time list, and even the most popular shows and movies need multiple weeks and enduring attention to accumulate enough.
By comparison, Wednesday, the teen supernatural dark comedy series based on the character Wednesday Addams, has been a breakout hit, racking up 752.5 million hours in just 12 days, making it the service No. 5 most popular series so far with more than two weeks left to keep adding up more hours. Netflix’s most watched TV series, ranked
The following are Netflix’s most watched series, based on Netflix’s own reporting of total hours viewed in the first 28 days of each titles’ release. Again, if a new season releases its episodes in two volumes on different dates, Netflix counts the watch time of the first volume’s episodes for their first 28 days, then it counts the watch time of the second volume’s episodes for their first 28 days.
Any changes in the rankings from the previous week are in bold text.
