Broadcasting16.11.2021

Most-watched movies and TV shows on Netflix in South Africa

Netflix has launched a Top 10 on Netflix website that shows the most-watched movies and TV shows on the world’s biggest streaming service for each week.

The rankings are based on hours viewed per title and include global and country-specific top 10 lists.

The global lists are broken down into four categories — English films, English TV shows, non-English films, and Non-English TV shows.

The country-based list pools all languages together into films and TV shows categories.

Netflix said the website was an “important step forward” for the company, its creators, and members.

“People want to understand what success means in a streaming world, and these lists offer the clearest answer to that question in our industry,” Netflix said.

“Most of all, though, we hope our new weekly Top 10 on Netflix will help fans discover new stories and join new conversations.”

The weekly lists are in addition to the daily country Top 10 rows Netflix introduced on the service last year, which will also be based on hours viewed going forward.

Last week’s lists for South Africa showed Red Notice, starring Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, and Dwayne Johnson, was the most-watched film after just one week on the service.

Meanwhile, the first season of the hit South Korean dystopian series Squid Game was the most-watched TV show and has been in the top 10 for eight weeks.

To determine the rankings, Netflix measures hours viewed over the course of a week, starting on a Monday and ending on the following Sunday.

The lists for the preceding week are then published every Tuesday. Visitors to the site can see top 10 lists dating back to 28 June 2021.

Netflix explained that each season of a series is measured separately, so two or more from the same series might appear in the top 10.

The streaming service also acknowledged that longer movies and TV shows might be favoured using viewing hours, but maintained it was the best approach for measuring a title’s popularity.

“Some people will ask why we don’t also report the number of members that finish a show or film,” Netflix said.

“We believe that whether you miss the end of one episode in a 10-hour series (a crying baby or Netflix and chill), or you don’t wait for the easter egg in the credits sequence, or you rewatch one scene multiple times rather than the whole film, all that viewing should be reflected in the popularity of the title.”

Netflix said it would occasionally also publish speciality lists — for example, top documentary features or reality shows — which its members love but may appear less prominently in the main top 10 lists.

Documentary My Octopus Teacher was one of Netflix’s biggest hits at this year’s Oscars.

Netflix will also be updating its overall top 10 lists, first published last month.

These track the most popular films and shows of all time on the service, based on the total hours viewed in a title’s first 28 days on Netflix.

According to the current list, Bird Box is Netflix’s most-watched movie, with over 282 million hours of watching during that period, while season 1 of Bridgerton led the TV shows, clocking more than 625 million hours.

Below are the top 10 most-watched movies and TV shows on Netflix globally last week. Note that only the global statistics show the total hours viewed.


Top 10 English TV movies — Global — 8 to 14 November 2021


Top 10 English TV shows — Global — 8 to 14 November 2021


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