Netflix typically keeps its viewing figures close to its chest, but every now and then they release some stats. This week, for example, the streaming giant unveiled some numbers that users will find interesting, as they announced their top 10 most popular original movies of all time. Along with the titles, Netflix also revealed how many times each film was watched within its first four weeks of being made available to stream.
A few of them aren’t surprising to see on this list, as they were clearly hits with fans and critics and made a big impact on social media. Others, though, didn’t get talked about nearly as much and yet still made it into the top 10.
Before we get into analyzing it, though, check out the list for yourself below:
- Extraction – 99 million
- Bird Box – 89 million
- Spenser Confidential – 85 million
- 6 Underground – 83 million
- Murder Mystery – 73 million
- The Irishman – 64 million
- Triple Frontier – 63 million
- The Wrong Missy – 59 million
- The Platform – 56 million
- The Perfect Date – 48 million
This year’s Extraction, starring Chris Hemsworth, is the expected number one most-watched pic, sitting at just shy of 100 million views. Likewise, second place isn’t a shock as 2018’s Bird Box, with Sandra Bullock, was a big hit. Mark Wahlberg action-comedy Spenser Confidential at number three is somewhat surprising, though, given its poor critical reception. But clearly, actioners with big names attached are what the people want – as number 4’s 6 Underground attests to. Alternatively, Murder Mystery‘s popularity shows that folks still want Adam Sandler comedies.
Onto the second half of the list and we have Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed The Irishman, followed by Ben Affleck vehicle Triple Frontier. The last three places are where the rankings get slightly more unexpected, though. At eight, we have The Wrong Missy, which was routinely slammed when it came out in May. Spanish thriller The Platform is another film we didn’t know had grabbed so many eyes, while The Perfect Date is perhaps not the most well-known of Netflix’s romcoms, but it did feature Noah Centineo off the back of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, so maybe its placement makes sense.
It’s worth pointing out that these figures only tell us how many times each title was streamed in its first month, not how many individual accounts watched it. Likewise, subscribers only needed to watch for two minutes for their view to be counted. This isn’t a totally definite way of determining the most popular movies on Netflix, then, but it’s certainly close enough.