In a fresh move, Netflix is making several modifications to its weekly top 10 lists.
The streaming giant will now organize its top titles based on a metric it refers to as “views” instead of the previous total viewing duration, although this figure will still appear on the weekly rankings. The view count is determined by dividing the total time spent watching a series or movie within a week by its running time, thereby estimating the number of Netflix accounts that have tuned in to a particular series or movie. However, this does not necessarily depict the total audience size, since the formula does not consider group viewing sessions or repeat viewings from the same account.
According to Netflix, this shift not only provides a more digestible number to indicate popularity but also evens out the competition for shows and films with shorter durations.
To illustrate, the action film Extraction 2, featuring Chris Hemsworth, recorded 88.4 million hours of viewing time worldwide in the week of June 12-18. Dividing this by its 124-minute duration gives 42.8 million views. As for TV series, the sixth season of Black Mirror topped in hours viewed (58.7 million). However, the final season of Never Have I Ever attracted a higher average number of accounts, registering 11.5 million views compared to Black Mirror’s 11.3 million, thanks to its slightly shorter running time.
Additionally, Netflix is adjusting its all-time top 10 charts by extending the evaluation period from 28 days to 91 days, equivalent to four weeks to 13 weeks. This change is aimed at better capturing long-term popularity and will also be sorted by account views. Squid Game still holds the top spot for any Netflix title, but Wednesday overtakes Stranger Things season four on the English-language series list based on the extended timeframe and views metric. In its 13 weeks, Wednesday received 252.1 million views (1.72 billion hours divided by a six-hour, 49-minute running time), surpassing Stranger Things 4‘s 140.7 million views (1.84 billion hours divided by a 13-hour, four-minute duration). The first season of Squid Game achieved 265.2 million views in its initial 13 weeks.
The all-time top 10 for English-language series, ranked by views over 13 weeks, now features limited series The Queen’s Gambit and season one of The Watcher, replacing season five of Lucifer and the limited series Inventing Anna from the previous 28-day, hours-viewed chart.
Interestingly, the view counts for Squid Game and Wednesday surpass Netflix‘s global subscriber count (232.5 million as of the first quarter), highlighting how repeated viewings can significantly impact these figures. This suggests that not every Netflix account holder worldwide has necessarily watched these two series.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
