Since its inception, Netflix has been notoriously tight-lipped about its viewership metrics. There’s even a particularly infamous anecdote in which the creator of “House of Cards” revealed that executives wouldn’t even share the show’s figures with him.
More recently, however, Netflix has been a bit more amenable to crowing about its streaming figures, along with adding a top-trending ranking to its service so people can see what the most popular titles are in their respective country.
This week, Netflix took their disclosures even further by releasing their most-watched shows and movies for the first time ever.
The dueling metrics hinge on two different criteria: hours watched within the first 28 days and number of accounts to have watched at least 2 minutes of footage within the first 28 days. For the most part, the two separate lists correspond with one another. However, there are some particularly interesting deviations.
Overall, “Bird Box,” “Extraction,” and “The Irishman” take the top three spots, with over 200 million hours watched apiece. However, despite “Bird Box” and “Extraction” also ranking #1 and #2 in the number of accounts that tuned in, “The Irishman” isn’t even in the top 10. The reason is quite clear: with a three-and-a-half hour runtime, that’s a lot of minutes watched, but not as many households decided to make such a commitment.
Check out the full lists below.
Netflix’s Most Popular Movies
Netflix top-10 movies by total view hours in the first 28 days:
- Bird Box — 282 million hours
- Extraction — 231 million hours
- The Irishman — 215 million hours
- The Kissing Booth 2 — 209 million hours
- 6 Underground — 205 million hours
- Spenser Confidential — 197 million hours
- Enola Holmes — 190 million hours
- Army of the Dead — 187 million hours
- The Old Guard — 186 million hours
- Murder Mystery — 170 million hours
For reference, Netflix top-10 films by number of accounts that have watched at least 2 minutes in its first 28 days of release:
- Extraction — 99 million
- Bird Box — 89 million
- Spenser Confidential — 85 million
- 6 Underground — 83 million
- Murder Mystery — 83 million
- The Old Guard — 78 million
- Enola Holmes — 77 million
- Project Power — 75 million
- Army of the Dead — 75 million
- Fatherhood — 74 million
