As somebody who obsessed over box office numbers during the wild, record-breaking year of 2019…well, 2020 has been a strange time for me. Without those weekend box office numbers, I have been forced to look elsewhere to track movie performance. That led to me create a new, simple tracking system for measuring movie performance on Netflix NFLX.
The great thing about this system? I can use it to track television show success as well.
The formula for that measurement is pretty simple. Each day, Netflix updates two different Top 10 lists: one for movies, and one for TV shows. Based on where a movie or show falls on that list, that content is awarded points under my system. Ten points for a first place finish, nine points for second place, eight points for third place—and so on.
After I tallied up the scores for each Daily Top 10 since the feature premiered on Netflix back on Feb. 27, 2020, I was able to see which movies have dominated Netflix the most over the past four months.
And now I can do the same thing for TV shows. Based on all of the streaming data I’ve gathered, I compiled a list of the 20 most-streamed shows on Netflix since the Top 10 feature was introduced. (I’ve included the points each show has garnered as well so you can observe just how much some shows have commanded the public’s attention).
Here’s the list:
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Tiger King – 387 points
Ozark – 377 points
Outer Banks – 356 points
Love is Blind – 295 points
All American – 266 points
Avatar: The Last Airbender – 254 points
Dead to Me – 230 points
Space Force – 227 points
The Trials of Gabriel Hernandez – 190 points
13 Reasons Why – 188 points
Sweet Magnolias – 172 points
Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich – 169 points
Riverdale – 146 points
The Office – 134 points
Too Hot to Handle – 127 points
Never Have I Ever – 127 points
Waco – 123 points
Money Heist – 120 points
Altered Carbon – 112 points
Hollywood – 109 points
The most interesting takeaway right off the bat is that the all-time list is largely controlled by Netflix itself. Fifteen of the 20 most-streamed shows on Netflix since Feb. 27, 2020, were produced by the streaming service—a stark difference from the 20 most-streamed movies, where only six Netflix-produced films made the list.
It should be no surprise that Tiger King is the most-streamed show on Netflix, considering the docu-series spent a record 27 straight days in the No. 1 spot on the Daily Top 10. The only show that has come even close to matching that streak has been 13 Reasons Why, which achieved a streak of 14 days in the No. 1 position.
It might seem strange, then, that a show that never held the No. 1 spot on the Daily Top 10 sits in the No. 2 position on the all-time list. Ozark’s third season premiered in second place on the Daily Top 10 back on March 28—six days into Tiger King’s record-setting run. And Ozark would remain in second place for nearly the entirety of Tiger King’s reign at the top.
But thanks to my new tracking formula, I was able to see that Ozark had more longevity. While Tiger King captured America’s attention during the month of April, the show also exited the Daily Top 10 altogether on May 9. Meanwhile, Ozark stayed hot during the early days of May when Tiger King had started to fade. Plus, Ozark didn’t exit the Daily Top 10 until May 23.
The other huge breakout hit was Outer Banks, which also debuted on the Daily Top 10 in the midst of Tiger King’s monstrous run. In total, Outer Banks spent nine non-consecutive days in the No. 1 spot on the Daily Top 10 and 18 days in the No. 2 position.
At some point in the all-time list, you’ll notice a huge delineation between shows that absolutely dominated Netflix and shows that merely benefitted from a consistent presence (and then another huge delineation when we account for the shows that completely bombed). Netflix shows like Love is Blind, All American, Dead to Me and Space Force enjoyed multi-day runs at No. 1, while mid-tier shows like Waco, Riverdale and Never Have I Ever only saw limited time in the top spot (or never held the No. 1 position at all).
The two big outliers are All American and Avatar: The Last Airbender, which are the only non-Netflix shows to command the platform’s streaming numbers.
The most exciting part of this ranking system is that I now have a better idea for which TV shows will be renewed on Netflix and which shows will likely get the axe. Up until the introduction of the Top 10, all we could do was speculate—but now we’ve got concrete data that will help us better understand the world’s most popular streaming service. And that kind of insight will improve our understanding of streaming as a whole as that digital platform redefines how we watch movies and television shows.
