“The Night Agent” was the most-watched series of the first quarter of 2023 on Netflix, the streaming giant announced on Tuesday and announced its detailed ratings for the first time in its history.
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The first season of this American series recorded more than 812 million viewing hours worldwide between January and June. This comes from a document that summarizes data from shows watched for more than 50,000 hours – or 18,000 titles, representing 99% of Netflix's audience.
Other hit content includes Wednesday, You and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Chapter. Non-English language productions are also well represented, accounting for 30% of viewers, particularly titles in Korean and Spanish.
Netflix has committed to releasing this information every six months, marking a major shift in perspective for the company that typically prefers to keep it to itself.
However, since 2021, the company has published the top 10, as well as a list of “most popular” content based on the programs' performance during their first 91 days on the platform. But this new report goes even further.
This year, the platform came under pressure to increase its transparency as Hollywood was rocked by strikes by screenwriters and actors unions, particularly demanding a greater share of the profits generated by the rise of continuous viewing.
“This is a huge step forward for Netflix and our industry,” the company said in a statement.
Speaking to reporters, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos denied that the initiative was sparked by talks with industry unions. He said Netflix's viewer data secrecy policy was not intended to serve potential competitors but had “created an atmosphere of mistrust over time.”
“We believe that displaying information [contenues] in this report […] will give creators and our industry a more accurate idea of our audience and their interests,” the company said in its press release.