Netflix Changes Its Viewership Measurement System for Better Transparency

Netflix is making changes to its viewership measurement system, for better transparency. The streamer will now rank its programming’s average viewership as ‘views’, which is hours viewed divided by the runtime of the film or series. Previously, its Top 10 lists were simply based on hours watched, which was an inaccurate portrayal of a title’s success, since the ones with the longest runtime or more episodes would stay at the top. Furthermore, the company has stretched the measurement window from 28 days to 91 days, which would give movies and shows more time to grow.

“We heard feedback that only providing hours viewed on our Top 10 lists was hard to contextualise, so over the last few months we started to share the views for a good number of our titles,” Netflix said in a blog post. The shift has caused some significant changes to the Top 10 rankings, with the Jenna Ortega-led Wednesday overtaking Stranger Things season 4 as the most-viewed English-language series of all time.

While the latter clearly has more hours viewed (1.8 billion), you need to take its whopping 13-hour-long runtime into consideration, which managed to push it over other shows as per the previous ranking system. Wednesday, on the other hand, only has eight episodes with a total runtime of 6 hours and 49 minutes, tracking 1.7 billion hours watched. The new view-based ranking system places it at the No. 1 spot with 252.1 million ‘views’, compared to Stranger Things 4’s 140.7 million.

The previous measurement system caused any shows with lower runtime or episode count to suffer — a more recent example being Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, which despite its impressive debut, only had six episodes to boot. Most other shows had a minimum of eight episodes and the 28-day period seems to have not been enough for the series to show its prowess. With the length now extended to 91 days, it can still climb its way to the Top 10 list with enough promotion from Netflix. There were some interesting new additions to the list as well. Anya Taylor-Joy-led The Queen’s Gambit — released in 2020 — climbed up the ranks with 112.8 million views, and is now in fifth place; the limited series wasn’t even on the list before. Netflix also has plans to capitalise on the show’s craze by expanding into a chess-based mobile game, which will be available soon exclusively to subscribers.

Squid Game continues to dominate in the Non-English-language series category and overall across both English and non-English series, maintaining its first position with 265.2 million views. Meanwhile, Money Heist’s seasons 3, 4, and 5 take have also occupied spots on the Top 10 list. With this new metric, even half-hour comedies such as Never Have I Ever have a chance to shine. On the film side, Red Notice ranks #1 with 230.9 million views, boasting a runtime just short of two hours. The Mark Wahlberg-led Spenser Confidential and We Can Be Heroes have also climbed their way to the list.

The revamped measurement system is still far from perfect though, considering the process just assumes that once a user started a show or movie, they’re going to get to completion. However, the concept of a ‘view’ is easier to understand for the general audience, rather than displaying hours watched or some kind of decimal rating, which just opens it up for more questions.

The timing of this viewership measurement change also seems quite convenient, given the Writers Guild of America (WGA) is currently striking at Hollywood for decent wages and transparency from streaming companies. Residual payments for streaming content have been lower than that of broadcast TV, so hopefully, this new metric helps better gauge the payment dispute for either party. Meanwhile, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos previously claimed that he was prepared for a writers’ strike, thanks to a robust lineup of shows and movies that would keep its audiences well-fed for years to come. Earlier this week at the TUDUM event, the company showed off a slew of upcoming releases, some of which even lead into 2024.