Netflix is notoriously guarded as far as its streaming figures go, and even when the service does release streaming numbers, they are based on strange, self-reported metrics. There are no reliable, objective measures of viewership on Netflix. However, back in March, days before the shutdowns around the country began to take shape, Netflix began to release daily charts showing which movies and television shows were most watched during that particular days. Those charts do not give exact viewership numbers, but they at least gives us a rough idea of what is popular (and I use them in our weekly box-office report for movies).
However, over on Reddit (via Forbes), user Lamboo has devised a point system that tracks the most popular TV shows based on those Netflix daily rankings. The point system is fairly rudimentary — it assigns a value from first through tenth place, which is added for every day the TV show is in the top ten — but it offers an interesting glimpse of what is most popular over the course of the last 100 days.
Unsurprisingly, Ozark season 3 has been the most popular TV show of the pandemic, although the series that comes close behind it, Outer Banks, may be a bigger surprise. It is followed by Dead to Me‘s second season, Sweet Magnolias, and Mindy Kaling’s series, Never Have I Never (I have never heard of Sweet Magnolias before, but now I know where Jamie Lynn Spears and Chris Klein are).
Six through ten on the list are Money Heist, the popular Spanish series in its fourth season; the second season of Altered Carbon; the third season of the teen comedy-drama On My Block; the The Last Kingdom; and at number ten, the coming-of-age comedy-drama I Am Not OK With This.
Some of the more recent entries like Space Force and Fuller House have also been very popular with the streaming service, but they haven’t been able to accumulate a lot of days on the point system yet (although both shows have ranked very well in the few days since they were released).
Elsewhere, in licensed shows, The CW seems to be dominating with All American and Riverdale taking the top two spots followed by Avatar the Last Airbender (from Nickelodeon), Netflix mainstay The Office, and Paramount TV’s Waco starring Taylor Kitsch. Don’t sleep on Community, either, which holds the number ten slot, after it returned to the streaming network back in April.