Netflix's global viewership in 2020 was nearly 550 million people, with this number increasing by over 60 million between 2020 and 2021. Although the growth rate is decreasing, that number is forecasted to continue to climb over the next several years, reaching over 780 million global viewers by 2026.

Data on the share of Netflix viewing in the United States showed that 37 percent of content viewing n the platform was of of original shows. This marks a dramatic increase from January 2017 when the figure was just 14 percent. Netflix originals have proved to be hugely popular and often draw in large audiences. More than 18 million viewers across the globe watched the entire third season of 'Stranger Things' within four days of its release in 2019, and 40.7 million watched at least part of Season 3 in that time. However, the majority of Netflix viewing is still of licensed content, which could cause Netflix issues in months and years to come as its competitors reclaim their content and use it on their own streaming services. It has already been noted that Netflix will eventually lose the rights to show American sitcom 'Friends', for example - one of the most watched shows on the platform.

Netflix's global subscriber base has reached an impressive milestone, surpassing 300 million paid subscribers worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2024. This marks a significant increase of nearly 20 million subscribers compared to the previous quarter, solidifying Netflix's position as a dominant force in the streaming industry. Adapting to customer losses Netflix's growth has not always been consistent. During the first half of 2022, the streaming giant lost over one million customers. In response to these losses, Netflix introduced an ad-supported tier in November of that same year. This strategic move has paid off, with the lower-cost plan attracting 70 million monthly active users globally by November 2024, demonstrating Netflix's ability to adapt to changing market conditions and consumer preferences. Global expansion Netflix continues to focus on international markets, with a forecast suggesting that the Asia Pacific region is expected to see the most substantial growth in the upcoming years, potentially reaching around 70.1 million subscribers by 2029. To correspond to the needs of the non-American target group, the company has heavily invested in international content in recent years, with Korean, Spanish, and Japanese being the most watched non-English content languages on the platform.

As of September 2024, all streaming services accounted for 41 percent of total TV screen time in the United States. Netflix made up 7.9 percent of the whole viewing time, slightly up from 7.8 percent recorded in the same period of the previous year.

During the second half of 2024, the daily time spent streaming Netflix around the world amounted to one hour and 46 minutes. While the streaming giant's subscriber number increased in the past year, viewing time dropped by 10 minutes compared to the first half of 2024.

A total of 142 million viewers are reported to have watched the South Korean series 'Squid Game' in Netflix, as of October 2021. Ranking in second came the movie Extraction with 99 million viewers, followed by Bird Box with 89 million viewers.

Netflix viewership measurement

The method of Netflix's measurement of viewership has changed, and now counts viewers who expressed the intention to watch the show and continued watching for as little as two minutes. This is similar to how YouTube video views are measured and further away from traditional calculations of TV ratings and viewers.

Netflix has justified the change in its methodology as a way to accommodate all types of content, regardless of length. Citing other media companies such as BBC iPlayer and The New York Times as having similar ranking models, Netflix discloses the viewer counts are approximately 35 percent higher using the new method.

A report on the viewing behavior on Netflix showed that in the first half of 2023, original and exclusive content accounted for 57 percent of the total hours viewed on the streaming platform, while licensed content was less popular. In the second half of 2023 the proportion shifted slightly, with viewing hours of licensed TV shows and movies rising by four percentage points.

In 2019, approximately 70 million people watched video content over Netflix in Latin America. The number is expected to increase to over 88 million by 2023. Another source estimated the number of Netflix subscribers in the region in 2019 at 20.5 million and projected a growth to more than 26 million by 2024.

The most used device to watch TV shows on Netflix in the United States was the TV screen in September 2023, with over 132 million unique viewers. The mobile device was the second most popular device for U.S. consumers watching Netflix TV series, followed by the computer.

As of February 2022, Netflix's biggest hits were from programs originating from the United States. Viewers spent 16.3 billion hours in total watching such shows. Meanwhile, productions from South Korea ranked second, with 4.3 billion hours.

The number of Netflix viewers in the United States was reportedly expected to reach 174.7 million as of 2021, and is forecast to increase annually. By the year 2025, it is projected that there will be over 188 million people in the U.S. watching content on the video on demand platform.

South Korean “Squid Game” is the most popular non-English television show on Netflix of all time as of January 2025, based on the number of views within the first 91 days of being on the platform. The first as well as the second season of the series filled the top spots, with around 265 million and 126 million views, respectively. Third came the Spanish “Money Heist: Part 4,” showing a significant uptick in popularity from the third part of the series.

In the United Kingdom, "Sex Education" was the leading series on Netflix in September 2023 based on unique viewers. In fact, it accounted for over seven million of such viewers in the given period. In second position, "Top Boy," managed to gather around 5.8 million viewers in the country. Netflix's adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's seminal manga series, 'One Piece (2023),' reached roughly 4.6 million viewers, ranking third in the UK.

Daily netflix use is most common among younger age groups in the United States, a survey found, conducted in November 2022. Americans aged 65 years or only are least likely to use Netflix on a daily basis, as only 10 percent in this age group stated to do so. By contrast, 37 percent of Americans between 18 and 35 years watch Netflix at least once a day and around one in three Americans aged 35 to 44 years do so.

In 2024, Netflix's streaming content obligations of less than one year amounted to 11.42 billion U.S. dollars, up from 10.32 billion dollars in the previous year. Content obligations in total reached over 23.3 billion U.S. dollars.

This statistic shows the popular viewing behaviors of Netflix users who watch TV and movies with pets worldwide as of January 2018. According to the data, 22 percent of surveyed adults who watched Netflix with their pets bribed them with treats to encourage the pet to watch the show or movie for longer, and 12 percent turned off a show because their pet did not seem to like it.

The Turkish audience's most preferred genres on Netflix were drama and comedy in the fourth quarter of 2024, watched by 22.8 and 16.5 percent, respectively. The sci-fi genre ranked third on the list with a share of nearly 8.8 percent, while action accounted for a further 8.7 percent of the views.

The statistic presents data on Netflix's streaming programming costs worldwide from the third quarter of 2014 to the third quarter of 2017. In the third quarter of 2017, Netflix spent an estimated 8.5 billion U.S. dollars on streaming programming.

A recent study revealed that nearly 40 percent of original and exclusive content watched in 2023 was released in the same year. Exclusive or original content from 2022 accounted for approximately 20 percent of viewership, while 2020 releases made up nine percent. Notably, TV shows and movies released earlier like in 2018 still held a five percent share, underscoring the importance of older content.

In 2019, Brazil is expected to have the largest Netflix viewer base - 28.7 million people, followed by Mexico with 19.3 million and Argentina with 5.9 million viewers.