New Study Reveals How Netflix Measures Show Success
By Movieguide® Contributor
A new study that dove into more complex components of Netflix’s data revealed greater insights into how the company views a show’s success.
“It’s all about whether a movie or TV show thrilled its audience and the size of that audience relative to the economics of the title,” said Lauren Smith, Netflix’s VP of strategy and analysis. “Success can come in all shapes and sizes.”
Earlier this month, Netflix released an industry-leading report covering the watch hours for more than 18,000 titles available on Netflix between January and June 2023. However, simply looking at the watch hours—all that the report reveals—does not tell the whole story about what it means for a show to “thrill its audience.”
The research company PlumResearch shared a more comprehensive data set with Variety to better show how Netflix understands success on its platform.
One metric highlighted was unique viewers—the number of people who watched a given title over a certain timeframe. Netflix typically focuses on a title’s first 28 days on the platform to decide whether it was a success.
Season 1 of WEDNESDAY, for example, had 83.9 million unique viewers during its first month on the platform, resulting in 507.7 million viewing hours over the six-month period. Season 1 of the show 1899, for comparison, had 19.6 million unique viewers in its first month and 51.8 million viewing hours between January and June.
The unique viewer data provides a more nuanced view of a show’s success as it reveals that the average viewer spent roughly 2.6 hours watching 1899, while WEDNESDAY viewers spent just over an average of 6 hours with the show.
While watch hours revealed WEDNESDAY was more popular than 1899, data about unique viewers paints an even better picture of just how much more successful WEDNESDAY was.
Another metric that the study revealed was the completion rate of a title. Having a passionate fanbase that will watch every ounce of content can save a title with relatively low viewership. This seems to be the case with the sitcom THE UPSHAWS.
The show had only 3.3 million unique viewers during its first month on Netflix—a far cry from WEDNESDAY and 1899. However, despite the relatively weak showing, it had an extremely committed fanbase, with 75% of viewers completing the season during that timeframe. WEDNESDAY, meanwhile, had a 65% completion rate during its first month, which is still an extremely successful metric and a sign of a highly engaging show.
Despite low viewership, THE UPSHAWS is a standout in other metrics, leading to the show’s renewal for a fourth season, while other titles that seem to outshine it are canceled after only one or two seasons.
The Netflix viewing hours report was a large step in streaming transparency, providing the public with an unprecedented look into the company’s metrics. However, it is clear that there is more going on behind the scenes as Netflix considers more than just a show’s watch hours to rate its success. Hopefully, the company will continue to release more data as it sets the industry standard on what metrics to share with the public.
Movieguide® previously reported:
For the first time, Netflix is sharing viewing data in a report titled “What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report.”
The information covers more than “18,000 titles — representing 99% of all viewing on Netflix — and nearly 100 billion hours viewed.”
“This is a big step forward for Netflix and our industry,” the company wrote. “We believe the viewing information in this report — combined with our weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists — will give creators and our industry deeper insights into our audiences, and what resonates with them.”
Now, viewers can see what people watched on Netflix over six months (January to June 2023), including the hours viewed for titles watched for more than 50,000 hours for both Netflix originals and licensed TV shows and movies. It also reveals premiere dates for Netflix’s original TV series and films and whether a title is available globally.
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