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Late last year, Netflix announced that it would publish its ratings twice a year. So far he is keeping his word and, two weeks ago, he made public the data for the first half of 2024, in a very extensive table in which almost all of his series and films in the catalog appear (on the one hand, the series and on the other , movies) organized from most to least viewed, a figure that is calculated by dividing the total hours viewed by the duration. They also provide the total hours watched. In reality, the viewing data is a bit misleading because it assumes that all the people who saw the first episode finish the series, and that does not happen for the majority of viewers. Netflix published its own analysis highlighting details of these results. These are some of our own conclusions:
Harlan Coben’s success
Does anyone remember a series called Wiles (Fool Me Once is its original title)? No? It premiered on January 1 and was the most watched series of the first half of the year on Netflix (if seasons are taken into account independently; if seasons of the same series are added, The Bridgertons was the most viewed, with its three deliveries in the top 15).
Even without reading its argument you can know that it is a thriller which takes place in some neighborhood on the outskirts of a random city with a lot of script twists and a lot of suspicious people hiding secrets. It is the scheme that any of the adaptations of Harlan Coben’s novels that Netflix now produces like churros follow. So much so that he has grouped his Harlan Coben series as if it were a genre in itself. In Spain he had his, The innocent, with Mario Casas as the protagonist, there is also a French woman and a couple of Poles, as well as several Anglo-Saxons. And they always tend to achieve very good viewing data.
Berlin, The Asunta case and Not one morethe most viewed Spanish
Non-English speaking production has brought the platform a third of viewings in the first half of the year, with Spain and Korea in the lead, followed by other countries such as France, Italy and Japan. It is not a surprise that Berlin is in the top 10 of the most viewed seasons between January and June, one step below The three body problem and above Always the same day. If the list continues to go down and we skip season 1 and 2 of The Bridgertonswe reach the second Spanish series that is at the top of the ranking, The Asunta case. You don’t have to go down far to find another Spanish woman, Not one more.
It is no longer surprising that Intervías have a great reception on the platform. The third season of the Telecinco series sneaks into position 76 of the total and is the fourth most viewed Spanish series on Netflix in the first half of the year. They follow him iron hand and the first season of The Money Heist, which seven years after it premiered on Antena 3 continues to find new audiences. Another curiosity: the second season of Alpha males is located two places above the much praised Ripleywhich given the data, it can be said that it has performed quite poorly in viewers for the perspectives it had and the noise it has made. Ripley is only five places above Between lands, the Antena 3 series.
The second life of Your Honor and Dexter
One of the proofs that Netflix has been the winner of the platform war is that it is the place where series from other channels or other platforms find a second life more effectively, so much so that they even become small phenomena. It happened with Suits last year. On this occasion, the star series of the summer on Netflix in the United States was Your Honora legal drama that arrived on the platform in June from Showtime. Also Dexter landed on Netflix following the same path. The two seasons of You Honor They had 16.1 million views in June (it landed on Netflix on May 31 and this data goes up to June 30; it is expected that the next report will have much better results). These are better data than many of the HBO series that went to Netflix last year in an entire semester.
The eight seasons of Dexter generated 33.2 million views between June 19 and 30 alone (just like Your Honor, The next report will surely have better data). Another series from abroad that has landed on Netflix successfully has been Yellowstonealthough only in some countries, such as the United States, Australia, India, South Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina or Mexico. Adding the three seasons that are available, it has achieved 34.8 million views. Of the HBO series that came to Netflix in the second half of last year, the one that has had the best performance has been Sex in New Yorkwhich with its different seasons has added 33.1 million views.
