Netflix has just shared a veritable treasure trove of viewership data, giving kids content producers an unprecedented look at how well their shows performed in 2023. It’s the global streamer’s latest—and arguably most significant—step towards being more transparent with its partners. 

Published on December 12, What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report measures more than 18,000 titles (both originals and licensed content) from January to June 2023. 

In terms of watchtime metrics, the teen/YA genre really stole the show. Ranking high on the streamer’s overall top-10 list were Wednesday (500 million+ hours, pictured) and the third season of Outer Banks (400 million+ hours). Other teen titles that made the top-50 include XO, Kitty (200 million hours) and season four of Never Have I Ever (168 million hours).

The sixth season of PAW Patrol—one of the platform’s leading licensed titles for kids—ranked 48th, with nearly 150 million hours. And in terms of preschool originals, CoComelon season one finished just outside the top-50 in the 58th spot, with 136 million hours. The CoComelon franchise as a whole is a top-performer for Netflix;  its eight seasons combined to rack up more than 600 million hours viewed.

Following this inaugural report, Netflix is planning to release biannual data-dumps that will each cover a six-month window. The breadth of information revealed yesterday was a welcome surprise for producers, who have been demanding more transparency about the performance of their shows for a long time. Netflix’s gradual capitulation on this front began in November 2021, when it started publishing top-10 lists highlighting the most popular films and TV shows in various regions.

“When we started in streaming 16 years ago, it was a pretty exotic proposition. There were no other streamers…and comparing live TV or live+7 to Netflix on-demand was like comparing apples to oranges,” said co-CEO Ted Sarandos in a press conference yesterday. “But as we’ve grown and streaming has become more mainstream in the US, it makes up more TV time than cable or broadcast, so we’ve become much more open.”

Due to the nature of Netflix’s metrics, the dataset doesn’t provide additional context like how the length of a program factored into viewing hours, or how many unique viewers watched a title. “To compare between titles it’s best to use our weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists, which take into account run times and premiere dates,” noted a Netflix press release.

Image courtesy of Netflix.