Netflix Officially Switches Viewing Metrics, Unveils Weekly Top 10 Lists

Netflix’s daily top 10 lists have become a powerful lens into which kinds of programming perform particularly well on the streaming service, but it was up to individual users to keep a keen eye on which titles rose to the top. Now, as the company shifts to highlighting a new metric—one based on total hours of a program viewed, not based on the number of households watching—it will begin releasing a weekly snapshot of the most-popular shows and movies on its platform. Every Tuesday, the company will release a breakdown of the top English and non-English-language TV shows and films based on the viewership from the previous week through Sunday. Each of the four categories will be available to view at the new website Top10.Netflix.com. Netflix will also release weekly rankings of the most-popular programs in more than 90 countries, including France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and the United States. Visitors to the website will also be able to see which of the most-watched titles on the service are popular in which country. (The Ryan Reynolds-led action comedy film Red Notice, for instance, is the No. 1 film in the U.S. and in 93 other countries.) The website also displays how many weeks a title has remained in the Top 10, highlighting the lasting power of some programs. (Zach Snyder thriller Army of the Dead and its prequel, Army of Thieves, have been in the top 10 list for the past three weeks.) In addition, Netflix will begin periodically releasing some of the all-time most-popular films and titles on its service, based on viewership over their first 28 days of availability on the streamer. Currently topping that list is Squid Game, which was viewed for more than 1.6 billion hours in its first month on the service. The second-most-popular series is Bridgerton, which was streamed for 625 million hours in its first month. The new website and the weekly release plan comes a month after Netflix signaled to investors that it would soon change its preferred metric to hours watched over its previous metric of popularity based on number of households watching at least two minutes of a program. “Figuring out how best to measure success in streaming is hard, and there’s no one perfect metric,” Pablo Perez De Rosso, Netflix’s vp, content strategy, planning and analytics, wrote in a blog post today announcing the website and the new metrics. “Having looked at the different options, we believe engagement as measured by hours viewed is a strong indicator of a title’s popularity, as well as overall member satisfaction, which is important for retention in subscription services.” With that said, Netflix says the new metric isn’t perfect—and longer series and films will get an automatic boost due to their runtimes. That’s why Netflix will also share other lists highlighting other titles that stand out but, due to the nature of those shows, may not bubble up to the top 10 list, De Rosso said. (Netflix has not said how often those specialty lists may be released.) Transparency criticism The plans to share far more viewership figures also comes as Netflix has weathered criticism about transparency, long a sticking point for a streaming industry that has remained opaque even as it has surged in popularity and adoption. Netflix has been selective about what figures it shares in the past, and other upstarts have followed suit, making comparison across the industry elusive and requiring a piecemeal relying on third-party tracking and measurement, which can often be piecemeal or frustratingly delayed. That can leave a lot to be desired both in front of and behind the scenes: some industry stars have indicated that if you work on a streaming series or movie, you might never know who, or how many, people are tuning in. Last month, Netflix told investors it would begin reporting information more regularly to improve transparency and give the industry a more meaningful metric upon which to evaluate success. And because the company self-reports its figures, it has tapped accounting firm EY to review its metrics and report its findings in 2022. “This is an important step forward for Netflix, the creators we work with and our members,” De Rosso said. “People want to understand what success means in a streaming world, and these lists offer the clearest answer to that question in our industry.” Netflix’s Next Act: Winning Over a Larger Share of TV Time