FBI thriller tops Netflix most-watched list for first half of 2023

Netflix recently released the worldwide viewing numbers for over 18,000 movies and television shows in a bid to increase transparency.

The data covers the first half of 2023, and provides a glimpse into which titles received the most attention from actual customers.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, rather than rely on the system it uses to determine its weekly Top 10 list, total viewing hours divided by run time, Netflix opted to measure engagement solely via total hours viewed.

The results showed that the number one title on Netflix was season one of The Night Agent, a thriller centering around an FBI agent, which amassed 812.1 million hours of viewing between January and June 2023. That was followed by season two of Ginny & Georgia, which viewers spent 665.1 million hours watching during that time frame. In third place was season one of hit Korean drama The Glory, which tallied 622.1 million hours of viewing.

Just over 20 percent of titles, or 3,813 titles, garnered around 100,000 hours viewed each, which is insignificant when compared to Netflix's overall numbers.

As the Hollywood Reporter reports, while original series and licensed titles both performed well, most of the titles at the top of the list were produced by Netflix. Suits, for example, performed well on traditional cable networks, but came in 67th place on the streaming service's rankings.
 

In a statement, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos explained that the company hadn't released such data in the past because it "wasn't in our interest to be that transparent because we were building a new business, and we didn’t want to give any competitors a roadmap." 

"This is probably more information than you need," he said of the recent data dump, "but it creates a better environment for us, for the guilds ... for producers and creators, and for the press."

Sarandos admitted that not being transparent with the public had helped in "creating an atmosphere of mistrust over time."