Netflix launches new Top 10 website which changes how they measure viewership

Netflix has been notoriously private when it comes to its viewing data, but the company recently announced that it would be changing how it reports that data. Each Netflix user can see a Top 10 list when they fire up the app which tells them what the most popular films and shows of the week are. Netflix has now launched a new Top 10 website which will show the top titles in more than 90 countries broken into four categories.

Previously, Netflix counted anyone who watched at least two minutes of any given program as a “view,” but they’ve now changed that to reflect total weekly viewing hours instead. The four categories are Film: (English), TV (English), Film (Non-English), and TV (Non-English). There are also Top 10 lists for each country, so you can see what viewers are watching in countries like Peru or Serbia.

“Having looked at the different options, we believe engagement as measured by hours viewed is a strong indicator of a title’s popularity, as well as overall member satisfaction, which is important for retention in subscription services,” wrote Pablo Perez De Rosso, VP of content strategy, planning and analysis for Netflix, in a blog post. “In addition, hours viewed mirrors the way third parties measure popularity, encompasses rewatch … and can be consistently measured across different companies.” You can also check out the most viewed films and TV shows on the streaming service, and as it stands now, the first season of Squid Game holds the top spot with 1.6 billion viewing hours in the first 28 days.

“This is an important step forward for Netflix, the creators we work with and our members,” De Rosso wrote. “People want to understand what success means in a streaming world, and these lists offer the clearest answer to that question in our industry. Most of all, though, we hope our new weekly Top 10 on Netflix will help fans discover new stories and join new conversations— whether it’s understanding your friend’s new found passion for chess, the value of a won or what’s going on with all those ‘cool cats and kittens’.“