Netflix’s Latest Engagement Report Shows a Drop in Viewership for Its Top Series and Movies

While Netflix continues to produce popular content, the success of its hits varies widely.

According to the streaming giant’s latest engagement report, the Korean drama title “King the Land” topped viewership on the platform with over 630 million hours watched in the latter half of 2023.

However, this number is significantly lower than “The Night Agent: Season 1,” which dominated Netflix’s initial engagement report for the first half of 2023 with over 812 million hours watched. “Ginny & Georgia: Season 2” followed with over 665 million hours viewed.

There was a change since the first engagement report, as the biggest hits weren’t as big. The top 10 titles lagged behind Netflix’s initial report in terms of hours viewed. In the latter half of 2023, the top 10 titles accumulated 3.65 billion hours, a 36% decline from 4.95 billion hours viewed in the first half.

During the second part of 2023, Netflix revealed that users collectively spent 90 billion hours streaming content on the platform. This shows a small dip from the 93 billion hours reported in the first half of the same year.

Netflix has advised against direct comparisons. The company said that there are a myriad of factors that can influence viewing time on the platform. While newer releases typically boost time viewed, it can take time for the viewing hours to collate. For example, “King the Land” premiered in June, just before the reporting started, giving it a head start over other titles such as “The Night Agent,” which debuted midway through the reporting period.

Another factor to take into account is that series generally have longer durations overall compared to movies, resulting in higher watch times — even though all except one of the top 10 titles in both reports were series. Additionally, the runtime of each individual series can differ significantly.