Netflix Reveals Historic First Engagement Report

Matilda De Angelis’ Lidia Poet’s TV series is the first Italian show in the chart.

Netflix has unveiled its first-ever Engagement Report, a publication highlighting titles with the highest global viewing hours. Despite persistent calls for transparency, these numbers have been closely guarded until now, providing a unique insight into user preferences on the streaming platform.

Co-CEO Ted Sarandos hailed the report during a remote press conference as “a milestone for our industry.” The inaugural report, covering January to June 2023, encompasses over 18,000 titles, representing a staggering 99% of all Netflix views and nearly 100 billion viewing hours. Notably, over 60% of titles released during this period secured spots in Netflix’s weekly Top 10.

Among the non-English language titles, Lidia Poet’s Law: Season 1 featuring Matilda De Angelis earned 127th in the report. Italian titles also made a notable impact, with Il Mio Nome è Vendetta (My Name is Vengeance), by Cosimo Gomez, starring Alessandro Gassmann, claiming the 579th position. Additionally, the first and second season of the Italian sensation Mare Fuori marked their presence (599th and 600th place) despite not being globally available. Edoardo Leo’s Era ora secured the 605th spot among Italian films.

The global list showcased that 55% of views originated from Netflix original titles, while 45% came from licensed titles such as the legal drama Suits, featuring Meghan Markle.

The report, covering both movies and TV series, revealed a crowded top ten dominated by series. The spy thriller The Night Agent topped the charts with an impressive 812 million and 100 thousand global viewing hours in the first half of the year. The family dramedy Ginny & Georgia secured the second spot with 665 million and 100 thousand viewing hours, also making a return to ninth place with its first season. The South Korean revenge series The Glory claimed the third spot.

While the top positions were dominated by series, the report highlighted the dominance of Netflix’s original content, with movies making a significant impact. Notably, the first film to appear in the report was the thriller The Mother, directed by Niki Caro and starring Jennifer Lopez, securing the 14th position.

In a bid for transparency, Netflix also announced plans to publish ‘What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report’ biannually, covering data on over 18,000 titles. This inaugural report focused on content viewed between January and June 2023.

However, the report revealed that not all titles garnered massive viewing numbers. Of the roughly 3,800 titles considered, only those watched for over 50,000 hours were included, with Netflix rounding to the nearest 100,000. The report highlighted thousands of titles with 100,000 hours viewed or less, emphasizing that most of the least-watched titles were not globally available.

Sources: Business Insider, Miamarket.it