Netflix is the biggest streaming company in the world, however, it’s also incredibly secretive with its viewership numbers. That is why a recent disclosure of the service’s most popular shows is such a valuable piece of information to understand exactly what everyone’s been watching

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Currently, Netflix has around 209 million subscribers worldwide, a figure that easily beats out its two main competitors, Disney Plus (116m) and Amazon Prime Video (+200m), though the latter does come with the caveat of being bundled to Amazon Prime services not related to streaming content. It’s no wonder then that Netflix continues to try to assert its market dominance by expanding into even more genres, as proven by the company’s growing number of projects involving acquired and original Netflix anime or live-action adaptations, as well as a promising video game-related catalog.

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During the latest CodeCon conference, Netflix co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos gave some unusual insight into what grabs most viewers’ attention on the platform, and unsurprisingly the list features some of the pandemic’s greatest hits. According to official data provided by the company, Bridgerton is the absolute king of streaming, as the period drama grabbed over 625 million total viewing hours among 82 million accounts worldwide, closely followed by the Spanish hit Money Heist's fourth season, the third season of Stranger Things, and Netflix’s horse in the fantasy genre, The Witcher season 1.

The data provided by the company separates between total viewing hours and the number of accounts that tuned in for a specific show, meaning the first metric is usually the better indicator for measuring popularity within the first 28 days of a show’s release date, considering people might drop something they start watching after the first few episodes. Other titles named in the rankings are 13 Reasons Why, You's second season, French mystery thriller Lupin, Sweet Tooth, Sex/Life, and Tiger King.

Despite the obvious usefulness of having access to this type of info for the first time, all of Netflix’s data must be taken with a grain of salt, as content like Lupin (5 episodes long) or The Queen's Gambit (7 episodes) will obviously be short on total running time compared to a longer series. The rankings also do not account for acquired content like Grey's Anatomy or Cobra Kai, which tends to rake in large numbers of viewers, as admitted by Netflix itself promoting Seinfeld's upcoming "premiere" as 2021's biggest show.

Sarandos did explain some of the intricacies behind all these numbers, while also taking the opportunity to shill Netflix’s Squid Game, its current hit worldwide. The way things are going, the Korean survival drama is lined up to become the most-watched show ever on the platform.

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