You must have read about how much a particular movie or show has been watched on Netflix and how it has broken records. You must have read about views, hours watched, top 10 list, etc but if have you ever wondered how Netflix is currently calculating it, we’re here to feed your curiosity!
Initially, Netflix was measuring one view when a viewer had watched 70% of a movie and for a web series, 70% of the first episode. Later, they changed their system and came up with a new scale – 2 minutes of watching. In favour of this move, Netflix said that 2 minutes shows the intention of a viewer. Further, the streaming giant said that anyone who abandons a movie after less than two minutes of watching is most likely not doing so due to poor quality, but because it was not the movie they intended to watch in the first place.
The critics felt that with 2 minutes of watching, Netflix was setting a bar too low for measuring the popularity of a title. After receiving a lot of criticism that the streaming giant is not transparent enough when it comes to popularity, Netflix again changed their system. Today, it ranks its titles by the total number of hours viewed.
This provides clearer and honest picture of how is a title actually performing on Netflix. It will give a credible insight into the popularity and make it easy for the viewers to judge that title. Recently, ‘Stranger Things’ season 4 volume 1 was in the news for breaking records after its premiere by clocking 287 million HOURS VIEWED worldwide. This is so far the best method Netflix has adopted to calculate views. What do you think about this system? Share your thoughts!