Netflix releases viewing stats for nearly all titles for first time

The creators are delighted: Netflix has finally revealed viewership statistics for almost all its shows and movies.

Netflix released its first “What We Saw” report on Tuesday. The report ranks nearly all of the company’s shows and movies by viewing time over the past six months. Netflix releases updated reports every six months, the company said.

Netflix has long had a reputation for a lack of transparency about the popularity of its shows and movies. This has led to a degree of mistrust in the creator community, co-CEO Ted Sarandos acknowledged on a conference call with reporters on Tuesday. Netflix kept viewing data private as it built its business so it could experiment without giving the data away to potential competitors, Sarandos said.

“This is the actual data that we use to run our business,” Sarandos said. “I’m a co-CEO of a publicly traded company, so sharing bad information has negative repercussions.”

Netflix currently has approximately 250 million subscribers worldwide, far more than any other streaming service. This gave Sarandos the confidence to be open about viewership statistics. Hollywood actors and writers cited increased transparency during the strike earlier this year, when they campaigned to be paid based on how viewers consume their content. Netflix also launched an advertising tier that seeks more transparency as brands seek information about how often they watch certain shows and movies.

“This is probably more information than we need, but I think it creates a better environment for the guild, for us, for producers, creators and the press,” Sarandos said.

Season 1 of the Netflix original action thriller The Night Agent was the most-watched show on the service over the past six months, garnering 812 million hours watched. “mother,” The movie, starring Jennifer Lopez, was the streaming service’s top movie. Sarandos said that between January and June, 55% of Netflix viewing was original movies and series and 45% was licensed titles.

Netflix revealed viewing information for over 18,000 titles, which accounted for 99% of all viewing, and all titles were watched for over 50,000 hours.

Read the Netflix report here.

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