Netflix is notoriously tight-lipped with its viewing data, and in the past, has even refused to tell the makers of movies featured on the platform how successful they were.

The reasons for this are twofold, in that it makes commercial sense to give away as little information as popular to competitors, and it also helps Netflix dodge questions about how successful the company actually is.

Naysayers have been detailing how the company is “doomed” for a while now, although that was all in a pre-pandemic world, and the first-quarter 2020 report shows massive growth in subscription numbers.

Maybe Netflix is feeling rather confident, because it’s now revealing its biggest blockbusters for the first time.

Via Bloomberg, here’s more:

Extraction, an action thriller starring Chris Hemsworth, delivered the biggest audience of any Netflix original movie in its first four weeks, according to the company, which provided a list of its 10 most-watched original movies. It’s followed by Bird Box [that’s Sandra Bullock, in a still from the movie, up top], Spenser Confidential, and 6 Underground.

The list provides the clearest picture yet of what types of movies are most popular on Netflix, which has historically been secretive about viewership.

Netflix only recently began to release handpicked data, often disclosed in quarterly financial results, and this is the first time Netflix has released a list of its 10 most popular original movies.

The full top 10, with the numbers representing how many accounts have “viewed” the title:

Clearly, movies featuring big names draw people in, as the top four on that list feature Chris Hemsworth, Sandra Bullock, Mark Wahlberg, and Ryan Reynolds respectively.

Oh, and clearly, the quality of the movie is largely irrelevant, because of the top four, Extraction boasts the best IMDb score, but only scores 6,7/10.

It’s important to clarify what qualifies as a “view”, because I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve selected something to watch and then bailed within a matter of minutes.

For that, we go to Engadget:

…when Netflix says that a show has been “watched,” it means that a person has clicked on a piece of content, intending to watch it.

It says that because the length of a show varies (and credit lengths and quit times are so variable), it’s best to think of viewership as a series of “requests.”

They’re not going to spill the beans on that front, are they?

I suppose you have to keep some trade secrets close to your chest.

[sources:bloomberg&engadget]