Netflix’s overall viewership may be up by 2%, but the streamer can’t seem to shake concerns around its engagement metrics.
That was one of the main takeaways from both the streamer’s second-quarter earnings report and its engagement report, which shared what Netflix subscribers watched during the first half of 2026. In total, Netflix subscribers watched 97 billion hours globally between January and June.
TV viewing accounted for more than 74 billion hours of global watch time during the first half of the year, marking a 4.5% year-over-year increase. This was largely driven by limited series, like the Jon Bernthal/Tessa Thompson crime mystery “His & Hers,” as well as tentpole franchises like “Bridgerton,” “Stranger Things” and Netflix’s more recent bet “One Piece.” True crime documentaries as well as children’s and family content were also consistent winners among subscribers.
As for movies, viewership dropped 3.1% year over year, accounting for 23 billion hours viewed. The Alan Ritchson-fronted “War Machine” ranked as the most-watched Netflix movie in the first half of the year, demonstrating Netflix’s knack for making R-rated blockbuster movies. Also, hot off the success of “KPop Demon Hunters” and “Swapped,” animated movies continue to be a big driver for the streamer.
Despite this overall viewership growth, there are still industry concerns about softening subscriber engagement. Shares for the streamer dropped over 8% in after hours trading. And though Netflix executives touted the streamer’s increased viewership numbers, analyst questions asked during Thursday’s earnings call pointed to skepticism of the platform’s new focus on more live events, user-generated (i.e. YouTuber) content and video podcasts.
In fact, though Netflix’s heads praised the viewership and engagement they’ve seen from video podcasts multiple times on the earnings call, none of the streamer’s more than 50 podcasts were specifically included in its data dump. Instead, those offerings were categorized as “Other Shows” in the report, whether they received more than 50,000 views or not — Netflix’s traditional parameter for not including a title on this report.
“While it is certainly possible that these creator-driven formats are truly capturing net-new screen time on top of a larger base, the fact we do not see the lift to reported view hours per member shows that these content types are unlikely to prove to be a needle mover in driving engagement and ultimately subscription value,” John Conca, sector analyst at Third Bridge, said in a statement. “Heading into the back half of the year, Netflix’s short-term pricing power will remain contingent on its ability to deliver genuine hits rather than peripheral content experiments.”
For his part, Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters acknowledged that “all hours are not created equal.” Specifically, he pointed to live programming, a portion of Netflix content that drives signups but accounts for 1% of viewership and about 5% of the company’s content spend.
“We know, ultimately, it’s a combined quality, variety and quantity of engagement that translates into satisfaction and value for members and drives the strong business outcomes we see right now,” Peters said, praising the streamer’s retention rates, subscribers’ willingness to pay and advertiser demand. “We remain focused on continuing to grow [view hours] and better understanding how we are doing at delivering member value.”
Thursday’s viewership report was also the last of its kind. Moving forward, Netflix announced it will no longer release a viewership report every six months and will instead drop one annual report during the first quarter of every year. Though this move was intended to draw a distinction between Netflix’s viewership metrics and earnings results, it may have an unintended side effect. Netflix may be the most transparent streamer around, but being less transparent does not traditionally inspire confidence on Wall Street.
As Netflix is in the midst of a major pivot, here’s what seems to be working for viewers and what isn’t.
Tentpole temp check
While all eyes are on Netflix’s next set of tentpole series to fill the gaps left by “Stranger Things” and “Squid Game,” for now the streamer is enjoying some residual viewership from the “Stranger Things” series finale that dropped on New Year’s Day 2026. Residual viewing boosted “Stranger Things 5” to rank as the No. 4 most-watched TV show from January to June with 55.6 million views, and even the first season of “Stranger Things” tallied 25.8 million views.
It was “Bridgerton” that did the heavy lifting for tentpole shows this period with Season 4 bringing in 100.2 million views, landing as the No. 2 show behind “His & Hers” for the first half of the year. “One Piece” Season 2 also made a solid showing with 47.3 million views in the No. 7 spot on the TV list. But, as has been pointed out, was much lower than the 71.6 million views its first season tallied within a similar time frame that boosted “One Piece” to the top of the list for the second half of 2023. Initial numbers pointed to a similar decline for “Avatar: The Last Airbender” Season 2, though the data dump numbers don’t give a comprehensive look at the performance given Season 2’s launch on June 25.
“The Boroughs,” which was canceled after one season, brought in 23.1 million views, landing within the top 50 TV shows for the period. Cancellation of the series, hailing from the Duffer Brothers, elicited outcry from fans, but Netflix’s swift decision shows the higher viewership bar that these more expensive tentpole series must clear in order to continue.
Limited series keep thriving
As Netflix has shouldered criticism for losing viewership in shows’ second season (concerns the streamer pushed back on during Thursday’s call), limited series are booming with the promise of a fulfilling binge or a mystery viewers can solve over the course of a weekend.
The strength of the limited series was on full display with the data dump, which saw “His & Hers,” the buzzy limited murder mystery series, take the cake as the top TV show for the first half of 2026 with 104 million views, beating the latest season of “Bridgerton.” Similarly, Harlan Coben’s “I Will Find You” rose to become the No. 3 TV show during the six-month period with just 12 days of viewing bringing in 63.9 million views.
Likewise, limited series “Run Away” and “Teach You a Lesson” took the No. 5 and 6 spots on the TV list, sandwiched between tentpoles “Stranger Things 5” and “One Piece” Season 2.
The exceptions to this rule might be awards-bait limited series: Emmy-nominated shows like “The Beast in Me” scored only 15.3 million views — below “The Four Seasons” Season 2. And “Beef” Season 2 logged only 12.8 million views.
Live events are paying off
Netflix’s big live events push has been paying off for the streamer, especially when it comes to comedy and sports programming. “The Roast of Kevin Hart” edged its way into the top 50 TV shows with 21.1 million views, tying with “Emily in Paris” Season 5 and “Running Point” Season 2. Right behind “The Roast of Kevin Hart” was “BTS The Comeback Live | ARIRANG” with 20.7 million views. “Skyscraper Live” landed within the top 100 shows with 12.6 million views.
However, The Actor Awards, keeping with the downward ratings trend hitting all awards shows right now, faced tepid viewership with just 2 million views after its March 1 debut, landing below the top 1,000 TV programs. And while WWE didn’t have a flashy event during this period, WWE events were scattered across the list.
Overall, the push seems to be paying off for Netflix. The value can be seen in drawing in new viewers, with six out of the top 10 new member sign-up days over the past five years coming from live events.
Animation reigns supreme
This is probably no surprise, but just as animation props up the traditional box office (with “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” being the first title to cross $1 billion globally this year and “Toy Story 5” the undisputed king of the summer), so too does it fuel streaming. Of the top five movies on the most-watched report, two are animated features — Netflix and Skydance Animation’s “Swapped” was No. 3 with 131 million views, while “KPop Demon Hunters” was No. 4 with 130 million views, and that’s after more than a year on the service.
Outside of the top 10, there were a number of licensed titles that performed well. At No. 11 there was DreamWorks Animation’s 2005 feature “Madagascar” followed by Sony Pictures Animation’s “Goat,” which underperformed when it was released theatrically earlier this year but landed at No. 15 on the list.
Illumination’s “Despicable Me,” “Despicable Me 2,” “Despicable Me 3,” Despicable Me 4” and “The Secret Life of Pets” were further down on the list, along with Netflix’s “In Your Dreams” and “Back to the Outback,” Nintendo and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” Paramount’s “Paw Patrol: The Movie” and “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” DreamWorks’ “The Boss Baby,” “Shrek,” “The Croods,” “Migration” and “Trolls,” and MGM’s “The Addams Family.”
That is a lot of animation. And it bodes well for Netflix’s very big fall, which sees the debut of “Steps,” a fractured fairy tale that centers on Cinderella’s supposedly evil stepsisters, and Brad Bird’s hugely anticipated “Ray Gunn,” which drops on Dec. 18.
Video podcast experiment seems worthwhile — but we’ll have to take Netflix’s word for it
Podcasts were noticeably absent from Netflix’s engagement report. The streamer added podcasts onto its platform in January through major partnership deals with Spotify and The Ringer, iHeartMedia and Barstool Sports. It now carries more than 50 podcasts on its platform but has yet to release any data about its viewership.
All podcasts were lumped into the streamer’s “Other Shows” category, which accounted for 757 million hours viewed. The titles were categorized as “Other Shows” in the report, a Netflix insider told TheWrap, regardless of if they received more than 50,000 views or not.
On the earnings call, the executives yet again touted that podcast viewing was over-indexed on mobile and viewing during the day. In recent weeks, the streamer has announced even more creator podcast acquisitions with Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” exclusively streaming on Netflix as well as new partnerships with Mythical Kitchen and America’s Test Kitchen.
Original genre tiles rule
As we reported earlier this year, Netflix has resurrected the R-rated blockbuster — the kind of movie that you used to be able to see at your local multiplex but has all but been snuffed out by the major studios’ commitment to four-quadrant franchise fare. These titles, with high-concept hooks, major stars (Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, Alan Ritchson) and muscular action, were huge this period, with soldiers-versus-robot adventure “War Machine” and crime thriller “The Rip” coming in at No.1 and No. 2 on the top 10 list, and survivalist thriller “Apex” and shark tale “Thrash” coming in at No. 5 and No. 6 respectively.
That’s nearly half of the top 10 devoted to the type of movie that mainstream Hollywood largely isn’t interested in anymore. In fact, “Thrash,” a film about a small southern town overrun by sharks following a natural disaster, liberally mixing bloody chills and social commentary, was originally meant to be a big Sony summer movie. Netflix bought it after it was nearly completed and turned it into one of its biggest hits.
True crime docs still play
Netflix, more than any other streaming service, has become synonymous with true crime documentaries, the kind of stories that trade in can-you-believe-it outrageousness or tales so disturbing you don’t know why you’ve never heard them before. Of the top 10, there was one documentary on the list — “The Crash,” about a mysterious case of a young woman driving into a brick wall — that landed at No. 8. “Maternal Instinct,” a movie so insane that we hesitate to even describe it, arrived at No. 14.
And “Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart,” which recounts the kidnapping and rescue of the Salt Lake City teen, landed at No. 22, while “Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story,” “The Investigation of Lucy Letby” (which garnered some controversy with its use of AI to obscure the identities of key interviewees) and “The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson” all appeared further down the list.
True crime also made up several notable TV releases, including “Michael Jackson: The Verdict,” which arrived amid the debut of “Michael,” landing in the No. 17 spot on the TV list. “The Witness,” which is a companion to Netflix docuseries “The Murder of Rachel Nickell,” landed as the No. 22 TV show.
The sheer amount of true-crime documentaries on the list reinstates what a crucial depository for this kind of storytelling Netflix has become. Peacock might have countless hours of “Dateline,” but if you want meatier, longer-form true-crime documentaries, look no further than Netflix. They can scratch that itch – until it bleeds.
Universal outshines Sony
When it comes to the battle of licensed films, Universal far outshined Sony. “Madagascar,” DreamWorks Animation’s 2005 hit, was just outside the top 10 at No. 11, with all of the “Despicable Me” movies, “Jurassic World Rebirth,” “The Secret Life of Pets” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” outside of the top 10 but still very high up on the list, while the two Sony standouts were “Goat” and “Anaconda,” a comedy remake from last year that lampoons the 1994 horror film.
Between mainline Universal titles and titles from their animation studios DreamWorks Animation and Illumination, Universal has a pretty significant hold on the most-watched titles. For every “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” or “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (both from Sony Pictures Animation) there’s an “Over the Hedge” (from DreamWorks Animation) or “Abigail” (from Universal). Remember “Abigail”? The little girl was a vampire! Anyway, Universal handily walked away with the crown, but Sony still hung tough.
Netflix’s bet on YouTubers is paying off
Partnering with creators seems to be working for Netflix. Ms. Rachel was once again the biggest YouTube star on the streamer. Last year, Season 1 of her show was the seventh most-watched show on Netflix. This year, Season 1 was the ninth most-watched series on the platform, and Season 2 was the 15th most-watched with both seasons accounting for 69 million views combined.
As for other creator-made content, Mark Rober’s science and discovery series “CrunchLabs” accounted for 36 million views across all four seasons, and “Salish & Jordan Matter” scored 29 million views over its two seasons. The children’s creator show “Danny Go!” was also well watched, accounting for 26 million views and standing as the 26th most-watched show on Netflix.
All of those well-performing shows are collections of YouTuber videos from kids and family creators that have been repackaged for Netflix. So far, it’s unclear if creator-led shows that fall outside of this narrow descriptor will perform well on the platform. For example, the Netflix original “Elmo and Mark Rober’s Merry Giftmas” was only viewed 1.5 million times, though that could be because it was a seasonal special. Also, the first season of “The Amazing Digital Circus” was viewed 10.4 million times, which could possibly be because the series has been on Netflix since 2024. Still, it’s a promising start to Netflix’s new era of collaboration with the creator economy.
A hunger for romance
While it was original genre films that scored most for Netflix, a demand for romance was showcased across the data released for movies and TV shows, with Emily Bader and Tom Blyth-led “People We Meet on Vacation” sneaking into the top 10 movies with 77.7 million views in between “Thrash” and “The Crash.” “Office Romance,” which stars Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein, also crept into the No. 10 spot with 58.4 million views, and Zoey Deutch-led “Voicemails f0r Isabelle” came behind with 53.3 million views.
The same can be seen on the TV side, with “Bridgerton” taking the No. 2 spot while YA series “XO, Kitty” Season 3 took the No. 16 spot with 29.3 million views.
The post Netflix Viewership in 2026: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why Wall Street Is Skeptical appeared first on TheWrap.
