Netflix has revealed its top 10 most watched shows and movies

Until now, the streaming giant had always maintained secrecy about the viewership data of its original content

‘stranger Things’: The Hawkins kid rule the roost

For the first time, streaming platform Netflix has released viewership data about its portal, after years of being secretive about its records. These numbers range from the duration of October 2018 to September 2019, and reveal that Stranger Things and Bird Box are the most watched TV show and movie respectively in the last year.

The third season of the sci-fi thriller /coming-of-age show set in the fictional city of Hawkins has garnered over 64 million viewers since its July 4 premiere. Meanwhile, Bird Box , the Netflix original film starring Sandra Bullock in a post-apocalyptic world has seen around 80 million plays.

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Netflix announced that it counts anyone who’s watched 70 percent of a single episode within four weeks of a series’ premiere as a ‘viewer’ of that show (this means that if you watch the first episode of a show and then decide not to continue the rest of the series, you still count as a viewer). It is the same for movies: watching 70 per cent of a movie will validate you as a viewer.

The data has come in for some criticism, but it does reveal that high school comedies and Spanish content are very popular on the platform, which also gives an idea about its international and target user base. However, there is no information to suggest comparison with shows from other platforms, such as say, HBO’s Game of Thrones or Amazon Prime’s Fleabag, that was a Emmy favourite.

With a year of data available, The New York Times compiled top ten lists of what Netflix states as its most-viewed television shows and movies.

TELEVISION SHOWS:

1. Stranger Things (64 million)
2. Umbrella Academy (45 million)
3. Money Heist (La Casa de Papel) (44 million)
4. You (40 million)
5. Sex Education (40 million)
6. Our Planet (33 million)
7. Unbelievable (32 million)
8. Dead to Me (30 million)
9. When They See Us (25 million)
10. Elite (20 million)

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MOVIES:

1. Bird Box (80 million)
2. Murder Mystery (73 million)
3. Triple Frontier (52 million)
4. The Perfect Date (48 million)
5. Tall Girl (41 million)
6. The Highwaymen (40 million)
7. Secret Obsession (40 million)
8. Always Be My Maybe (32 million)
9. Otherhood (29 million)
10. Fyre (20 million)

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Stranger Things leads the superhero-comic book adaptation show Umbrella Academy by almost 20 million viewers, while the Spanish heist crime drama Money Heist is third on the TV list (Indian viewers can expect an adaptation soon ). True-crime drama mini-series When They See Us also finds a justified place here.

Bird Box and the Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston film Murder Mystery lead the romcom-heavy movie list, with Fyre , the documentary about fraudulent entreprenuer Billy McFarland and his failed Fyre Festival of 2017 rounds off the top 10.