For years, it has been one of the industry's best-kept secrets. But on Tuesday, Netflix finally decided to share it, ending its notorious reluctance to share viewing data for its catalog of content. The report, titled What We Watched, covers 18,000 titles — or 99% of everything watched on Netflix — along with the number of hours watched for each series or movie. In total, there were 100 billion hours of content were consumed from January to July 2023, shedding ample light on the tastes and habits of its nearly 250 million subscribers worldwide.
Topping the list is The Night Agent, the FBI agent thriller starring Gabriel Basso. It amassed 812 million hours of screen time, equivalent to 33.8 million days or 92,694 years. Close behind came the second season of Ginny & Georgia, The Glory, Wednesday and the fourth season of You, the thriller about a serial killer that is now in its fourth season.
According to Netflix, 55% of the content consumed in the first six months of the year was produced in-house.
As the company itself acknowledges, this marks "a significant step forward for Netflix and our industry," as stated in a press release. "We believe that the viewing information in this report, combined with our weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists, will provide creators and our industry with a deeper insight into our audiences and what resonates with them."
The issue of transparency in the streaming world was a major point of contention during the industry-paralyzing six-month strike between the writers' and actors' unions, studios, and platforms. They demanded fair compensation for streaming and for that they needed to have the numbers in hand. Now, they do. Netflix will report its activity every six months.
Ted Sarandos, the company's executive chairman alongside Reed Hasting, was aware of this, but at the same time justifies years of secrecy. "This is the information we use to run the company," he said in a call with several media outlets. "I'm the CEO of a public company, so sharing negative information has consequences."
He now feels they might have swung to the other extreme. "It's probably more information than they need, but I think it creates a better environment for the guilds, for us, for producers, for creators, and for the press."