Netflix says it is putting an end to semi-annual data releases detailing views and total time spent on thousands of series and movies on the platform. Instead, the company will move to annual releases starting early next year.
But the second half of this year will likely see an uptick in viewing time, as that’s been the case roughly every six months since Netflix started offering its big data releases.
In the first half of 2026, Netflix users around the world spent about 97.7 billion hours watching series and movies on the platform. This is a 2 percent increase from the first half of last year (95.2 billion hours) and a slight increase from the second half of 2025 (97.1 billion hours). Since a 4% decline in the second half of 2023, the pattern of small but steady growth in viewing time per six-month data release has continued.
As for the decision to switch to lower annual data, Netflix said in its quarterly earnings letter that “engagement is not just about the quantity of hours watched, but also the quality and diversity of our offerings. To clarify this, we are making a change to our viewing hours disclosure. Following today’s What We Watched report, which covers the first half of 2026, we will switch to publishing this report annually in the first quarter, starting in 2027. OBJECTIVE OF SEPARATE PUBLICATION The report on our earnings results is intended to maintain focus on our financial metrics Core – revenues and operating profits.
Netflix will continue to release its weekly lists of the best shows and movies.
As for the first half of this year, His and hers It topped the series chart with 104 million views (calculated as total hours watched divided by running time) from January to June. Season four of Bridgerton It received 100.2 million views to take second place, and the period drama led in hours watched with 889.8 million (its running time was twice that of the film His and hers). Despite premiering less than two weeks before the end of June, I will find you It ranked third in terms of views (63.9 million), before the final season of the series Strange things (55.6 million).
The top two streaming movies of the first half of the year, in terms of views and total viewing time, were: War machine (146.9 million views, 266.8 million hours) and Rupture (136.1 million views, 256.4 million hours).
As usual, it was very heavy to watch. The top 200 shows — just over 2 percent of the roughly 8,200 titles listed — account for about 36 percent of all views among series. The top 200 movies were ranked by hours watched, and they accounted for 34% of the total viewing time. The story was similar among films: the top 200 films (out of approximately 9,200 films) received 34% of the views and total viewing time.
