Netflix Viewing Up 5% in Second Half of 2024, ‘Squid Game 2’ Leads as Most-Watched TV Series
Netflix subscribers streamed more content than ever in the back half of 2024 — and the second season of Korean hit drama “Squid Game” was the biggest TV show on the service.
The streamer’s customers watched more than 94 billion hours on Netflix in the second half of last year, a 5% increase year over year, according to its latest Engagement Report sharing data on what people watched on from July-December 2024.
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“Squid Game” Season 2, despite premiering on Dec. 26 with only six days left in the year, dominated the period as Netflix’s most-viewed series with nearly 87 million views. That said, no single title accounts for more than 1% of total viewing on Netflix. For example, “Squid Game 2” represented only 0.7% of global viewing for the time period. That’s “why we invest in a wide variety of quality shows and films and why we need to make them great, so that every time a member comes to Netflix they press play and stay,” the company said in a blog post Wednesday.
The company calculates views by dividing total hours viewed by runtime. The Engagement Report, which Netflix is releasing twice per year, covers about 99% of all video watch-time on Netflix. Note that the data is self-reported by the company. (See the lists of the top 10 shows and films on Netflix below.)
Other highlights from the biannual report:
Animated films continue to drive high engagement. Ten of the top 25 films in the second half of 2024 were animated, including “Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch” (67 million views), “Trolls Band Together” (61 million), “That Christmas” (60 million), “Sing” (58 million) and “Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie” (56 million).
True crime remains a popular genre, reflected by top-performing titles “The Menendez Brothers” (39 million), “American Murder: Laci Peterson” (37 million), “Worst Ex Ever” (26 million), “Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter” (25 million) and “The Lost Children” (22 million).
Almost one-third of all viewing on Netflix came from non-English shows and films. In addition to “Squid Game 2,” top titles were Norway’s “La Palma” (52 million), Mexico’s “The Accident” (41 million), France’s “Family Pack” (41 million), Germany’s “The Empress” Season 2 (19 million), Brazil’s “Senna” (15 million) and Colombia’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” (9 million), a series based on the novel by Gabriel García Márquez.
Netflix Top 10 Most-Viewed TV Shows, Second Half of 2024
Title | Release Date | Views |
Squid Game: Season 2 // ??? ??: ?? 2 | Dec. 26, 2024 | 86,500,000 |
The Perfect Couple: Season 1 | Sept. 5, 2024 | 75,100,000 |
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story | Sept. 19, 2024 | 69,700,000 |
Emily in Paris: Season 4 | Aug. 15, 2024 | 57,800,000 |
Nobody Wants This: Season 1 | Sept. 26, 2024 | 56,800,000 |
La Palma: Limited Series | Dec. 12, 2024 | 52,200,000 |
Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson | Nov. 11, 2024 | 48,900,000 |
The Accident: Season 1 // Accidente: Temporada 1 | Aug. 21, 2024 | 41,200,000 |
Black Doves: Season 1 | Dec. 5, 2024 | 38,800,000 |
Cobra Kai: Season 6 | July 18, 2024 | 38,300,000 |
Netflix Top 10 Most-Viewed Movies, Second Half of 2024
Title | Release Date | Views |
Carry-On | Dec. 13, 2024 | 137,300,000 |
The Union | Aug. 16, 2024 | 131,100,000 |
Rebel Ridge | Sept. 6, 2024 | 129,000,000 |
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F | July 3, 2024 | 97,100,000 |
Our Little Secret | Nov. 27, 2024 | 81,300,000 |
Sing: Thriller | Oct. 16, 2024 | 77,000,000 |
A Family Affair | June 28, 2024 | 74,200,000 |
Uglies | Sept. 13, 2024 | 72,100,000 |
Don’t Move | Oct. 25, 2024 | 69,400,000 |
Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch | – | 66,500,000 |
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