You may keep a detective eye-out for the number of times your favorite show got streamed on your favorite streaming service, which is let’s say Netflix. And with the result in hand you might be surprised that a considerable number of people might be interested in watching what you watched, giving you the illusion that you are part of something bigger.
While Netflix usually generates lots of views when a new show drops in, it was always accused for their unusual fixation of “misplacing” their viewership stats. However, the latest update has pushed their statistical fixation all the way as they posted on Tuesday that The Witcher turned into their most popular first season for any series to date with an estimated 76 million accounts watching the series within four weeks of the show’s inception. Furthermore, it shows that Michael Bay’s explosive thriller 6 Underground garnered 83 million views within the first month.
Not many might share the same enthusiasm for huge numbers knowing how Netflix conceived them. The company switched to a new viewership metric that essentially inflates its numbers by more than a third of the actual numbers. It achieves the following deception by essentially posting a view for a show even if it is being watched for more than two minutes. This comes as a huge difference as in the beginning Netflix did not post a viewership stat to a show unless an account posted completing around 70% of the show’s or film’s routine.
While there is no potential way to verify Netflix’s number for any independent show as Netflix does not release any sort of relatable data except for the end-result. This gives Netflix the unique position to essentially hand-pick shows to boot to the top of the line based on personal taste, boycotting traditional choices.
While there are other metric counters that can monitor Netflix’s numbers for viewership stats, the metric counter that they employ is far too dramatic to consider.
