Netflix’s two-minute viewing metric has long seemed like an inaccurate methodology for gauging streaming success. But the streamer has now announced a change. It will rank properties by the number of hours people spend watching them instead. Netflix has launched a new website, “Top 10 on Netflix,” to aggregate this information for curious viewers.
The streamer shares in a release:
Figuring out how best to measure success in streaming is hard, and there’s no one perfect metric. Traditional measures like box office or share of audience (which was designed to help advertisers understand success on linear TV) aren’t relevant to most streamers, including Netflix. 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. In addition, hours viewed mirrors the way third parties measure popularity, encompasses rewatch (a strong sign of member joy) and can be consistently measured across different companies.
On Netflix’s Top10 site, fans can take a look at the top films and tv shows on Netflix. Netflix further separates the titles into “English” and “Non-English” films. You can also click around to see the top 10 lists for different countries. Netflix will also compile global lists. These lists update every Tuesday. Netflix has also made some historical data available. Now if only we could search by show.
Additionally, “The lists are ranked by hours viewed per title, i.e., the total number of hours members spent watching a season of a series or film (including the three times you watched that scene in Sex Life).” But “each season of a series is measured separately, so you might see Seasons 2 and 3 of Stranger Things on the list.”
Netflix also notes:
We also know fans love to track our most popular films and shows of all time. So we will also update our overall lists, which we first published last month, as new titles become mega hits. These lists are based on the total hours viewed in a title’s first 28 days on Netflix.
While this new methodology improves the two-minute counter, it remains essential to examine this update closely. Being a top show or movie offers big bumps in attention to properties. And thus, it’s crucial we get accurate reports. Netflix does share that they’ve “engaged EY, an independent accounting firm, to review [their] new viewing metrics, and [they] will publish their report in 2022.” Definitely, a great step in ensuring these top 10 lists remain accurate and impartial.
We can only hope we see our favorites in the Top 10 very soon. Of course, we know the upcoming live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series will make the cut. But what about eerie Christmas horror? Guess we will click and find out.
