On Thursday afternoon, Netflix will drop its bi-annual data dump for the first half of 2026, listing out viewership for every title that racked up over 50,000 hours viewed. But before that happens, let’s take a step back to answer a crucial question: What actually counts as a view according to Netflix?
Netflix counts its audience via views, which divides the number of hours viewed for a title by its runtime — a metric used by other streamers, including Disney+ and Hulu. It’s a departure from traditional linear TV, which measures audience using viewers tallied by a program in a window of time, and a shift from Netflix’s previous viewership metric of hours viewed.
Understanding the methodology behind the metric will come in handy when dissecting Netflix’s data-packed spreadsheet, which will tally viewership through that method from January to June for thousands of titles. The semi-annual engagement report — as well as Netflix’s second-quarter earnings report — is landing amid increased scrutiny for the streamer’s engagement and the struggle to retain viewers for returning series.
So why is Netflix’s metric different than the one used by, say, ESPN? The simplest explanation is the shift from linear to streaming: While linear channels measure how many people tuned into a telecast at a certain time, the advent of streaming made it so audiences could call up the show or movie on demand — enabling subscribers to watch or re-watch whenever they so please.
With that in mind, Netflix started tallying hours viewed per week to measure engagement for its shows and movies when it first shared viewership data in 2020 with its weekly top 10 lists. Then it shifted its methodology in June 2023, moving from an hours viewed tally to views. The move corrected a bias, the streamer noted at the time, which gave titles with longer run times an advantage, and notably saw “Wednesday” overtake “Stranger Things 4″ for the first time.
The necessity to report views instead of hours viewed can be seen in Netflix’s last engagement report, which saw the streamer tally over 96 billion views from July to December 2025. The hours viewed breakdown saw TV account for over 71 billion hours viewed and movies account for nearly 24 billion hours viewed, reflecting solely the difference in length of a show versus a movie. When looking at total views for the six-month period, it evens out: TV viewing accounted for just over 10 billion views while film content logged nearly 14 billion views.
And while Netflix faces increased scrutiny regarding its viewership retention — especially after it stopped regularly sharing subscriber numbers after in the first quarter of 2025 — it remains the most transparent streamer when it comes to viewership data.
No other streamer shares viewership as consistently as Netflix; Prime Video last month launched a weekly top 10 that emulatesNetflix’s — but without actual numbers — and other streamers like Peacock, Disney+/Hulu and Prime Video will release select highlights for big releases. As for linear networks, they’ve started prioritizing delayed viewing when reporting the success of a title, with seven-day and 35-day windows prioritized over premiere night numbers.
With the days of obsessing over overnight ratings long gone, it’s Netflix’s weekly top 10 lists and semi-annual data dumps, in conjunction with Nielsen’s streaming charts that fuel ratings analysis for streaming content.
World Cup quarterfinals record
The FIFA World Cup kept its ratings streak going, with the quarterfinals breaking records across both English and Spanish-language broadcasts. English-language coverage of the quarterfinals on Fox averaged 15.6 million viewers, rising 150% over the 2022 quarterfinal average and ranking as the most-watched FIFA men’s world cup quarterfinals in English-language U.S. history.
On Telemundo/Peacock, the games averaged 10.4 million viewers, increasing 154% over 2022 to become the most-watched quarterfinal stage ever in Spanish-language media history.
“Big Brother” scores biggest premiere in five years
The “Big Brother” Season 28 premiere averaged 3.9 million viewers last Thursday according to Nielsen viewing figures. It marked a 22% increase from last year to capture the show’s most-watched premiere since July 7, 2021, which averaged 4.3 million viewers.
The telecast, which also marked the most-watched Thursday night “Big Brother” premiere since Aug. 13, 2020, also scored the most social impressions a premiere has seen since 2020 with 8.1 million views and 866,000 interactions.
“The Daily Show” lands ratings highs
Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” landed its highest-rated second quarter in the 18-49 demo in nine years as it scored a 0.57 demo rating, rising 46% over its rating a year ago. It was beloved host Jon Stewart whose Monday night episodes scored the highest ratings, with Stewart averaging a 0.67 rating — up 21% year-over-year — while the news team averaged a 0.53 rating — up 66% year-over year.
Beyond demo viewership, “The Daily Show” closed out the period with an average of 1.12 million total viewers, ranking as the most-watched second quarter in eight years.
ICYMI:
- “I Will Find You” kept its ratings streak going for the fourth week in a row
- “Dutton Ranch” closed out its first season as Paramount+’s biggest freshman series to date, TheWrap revealed exclusively
- “ABC World News Tonight With David Muir” ranked as the most-watched program across broadcast and cable (excluding sports) for the 13th consecutive week
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