Netflix saw a British invasion in the first six months of the year — with four of its 10 biggest shows globally in the first half of 2024 coming from the U.K.: “Fool Me Once,” the Emmy-winning “Baby Reindeer,” “The Gentlemen” and “One Day.”
In addition, Shonda Rhimes’ U.K.-set “Bridgerton” Season 3 was the No. 2 most-watched show worldwide from January-June 2024. The season notched a whopping 91.9 million views in less than two months following its May 14 premiere. All told, shows in the “Bridgerton” universe garnered 189 million views in the first half of 2024; views in the six-month period for “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” hit 24 million (doubling versus the second half of last year) while views of of “Bridgerton” seasons 1 and 2 jumped fivefold compared with the prior six months.
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The company calculates views by dividing total hours viewed divided by runtime. (See the lists of the top 10 shows and films on Netflix below.)
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The most-viewed TV shows for the first half of 2024 on Netflix were limited series “Fool Me Once” (108 million views), “Bridgerton” S3 (92 million), “Baby Reindeer” (88 million), “The Gentlemen” (76 million) and “Avatar The Last Airbender” Season 1 (71 million).
On the film front, the most-viewed titles in the six-month period were “Damsel” starring Millie Bobby Brown (143.8 million), “Lift” starring Kevin Hart (129.4 million), Oscar nominee “Society of the Snow” (103.8 million), shark thriller “Under Paris” (84.7 million) and Universal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (80.3 million).
The data was released Thursday by Netflix, the third of its semiannual viewing measurement reports. Overall, in the first half of 2024, customers watched more than 94 billion hours on Netflix, up slightly from 93 billion in the first six months of 2023.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has said the streamer decided to release the huge trove of data, covering 99% of viewing time on the service, to provide greater transparency to creative partners, agents and the industry at large. But the massive viewing stats (which aren’t vetted by a third party) are also an opportunity for Netflix to crow about its dominance in the subscription-streaming business. Sarandos, speaking Sept. 18 at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York, said he’d like to see competitors release similar comprehensive viewing metrics — which seems unlikely to happen anytime soon, as rivals’ numbers would pale in comparison to Netflix’s scale.
In announcing the first-half 2024 data, Netflix highlighted views across genres — aiming to illustrate the breadth of its original and licensed content:
- Prestige TV and Films: Emmy-winners “Ripley” (9 million views) and “The Crown” Season 6 (12 million) and the Emmy-nominated “Griselda” (69 million) and “3 Body Problem” (52 million) and “Scoop” (19 million)
- Romance: “Mother of the Bride” starring Brooke Shields and Miranda Cosgrove (78 million), “Doctor Slump” (14 million), and “Heartstopper” (5 million across its two seasons)
- Comedies: “Young Sheldon” (106 million views across six seasons); “The Roast of Tom Brady” (22 million), “Dave Chappelle: The Dreamer” (17 million), “Alpha Males” (14 million from two seasons)
- Reality TV: “Love Is Blind” Season 6 (21 million), “Perfect Match” Season 2 (11 million) and “Is It Cake?” Season 3 (9 million).
- Animated Films: “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (80 million), “Minions” (73 million) and “The Boss Baby” (64 million)
- Documentaries: “American Nightmare” (55 million), “The Greatest Night in Pop” (25 million), “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” (12 million), “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” (6 million) and Emmy-winning series “Love on the Spectrum” (11 million)
The full spreadsheet for the latest Netflix Engagement Report, inclusive of 6,801 show titles and 9,360 films, is at this link. The company released its first big data dump, covering the first half of 2023, last December. In the second report, spanning the back half of 2023, the company added runtime and views and separated films and TV series, syncing it up with its weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists.
Netflix Top 10 TV Shows, January-June 2024
| Title | Release Date | Hours Viewed | Runtime | Views |
| Fool Me Once: Limited Series | 2024-01-01 | 689,500,000 | 6:25 | 107,500,000 |
| Bridgerton: Season 3 | 2024-05-16 | 733,800,000 | 7:59 | 91,900,000 |
| Baby Reindeer: Limited Series | 2024-04-11 | 347,600,000 | 3:58 | 87,600,000 |
| The Gentlemen: Season 1 | 2024-03-07 | 507,300,000 | 6:41 | 75,900,000 |
| Avatar The Last Airbender: Season 1 | 2024-02-22 | 515,300,000 | 7:15 | 71,100,000 |
| Griselda: Limited Series | 2024-01-25 | 383,000,000 | 5:32 | 69,200,000 |
| American Nightmare: Season 1 | 2024-01-17 | 123,700,000 | 2:15 | 55,000,000 |
| 3 Body Problem: Season 1 | 2024-03-21 | 388,100,000 | 7:24 | 52,400,000 |
| Berlin: Season 1 // Berlín: Temporada 1 | 2023-12-29 | 318,400,000 | 6:34 | 48,500,000 |
| One Day: Limited Series | 2024-02-08 | 263,000,000 | 6:40 | 39,400,000 |
Netflix Top 10 Films, January-June 2024
| Title | Release Date | Hours Viewed | Runtime | Views |
| Damsel | 2024-03-08 | 263,700,000 | 1:50 | 143,800,000 |
| Lift | 2024-01-12 | 230,800,000 | 1:47 | 129,400,000 |
| Society of the Snow / La sociedad de la nieve | 2024-01-04 | 252,500,000 | 2:26 | 103,800,000 |
| Under Paris / Sous la Seine | 2024-06-05 | 146,800,000 | 1:44 | 84,700,000 |
| The Super Mario Bros. Movie | 123,100,000 | 1:32 | 80,300,000 | |
| Mother of the Bride | 2024-05-09 | 116,500,000 | 1:30 | 77,700,000 |
| Atlas | 2024-05-24 | 154,200,000 | 2:00 | 77,100,000 |
| Minions | 110,200,000 | 1:31 | 72,700,000 | |
| Irish Wish | 2024-03-15 | 113,000,000 | 1:34 | 72,100,000 |
| The Boss Baby | 103,800,000 | 1:38 | 63,600,000 |
(Pictured top, l. to r.: “Fool Me Once,” “Bridgerton,” “Baby Reindeer”)
