Netflix doesn’t usually keep its shows going past the third season mark anymore these days, which makes the just-updated weekly global Top 10 ranking from Netflix, which we’ll take a closer look at below, so unusual. It’s actually topped this week by two shows that just released fourth- and sixth-season episode batches on the streamer. They include Season 4 of Mindy Kaling’s sweet YA comedy Never Have I Ever and Season 6 of Black Mirror.
Netflix Top 10 (June 12-June 18)
Starting with Manifest, here are the top 10 most popular Netflix shows in the world at the moment:
- Never Have I Ever: Season 4 — 11.5 million views
- Black Mirror: Season 6 — 11.3 million views
- Arnold — 5.2 million views
- Our Planet II — 3.5 million views
- Fubar: Season 1 — 3.4 million views
- Tex Mex Motors: Season 1 — 2.8 million views
- Manifest: Season 4 — 2.8 million views
- Never Have I Ever: Season 1 — 2.6 million views
- Amy Schumer: Emergency Contact — 2.4 million views
- Never Have I Ever: Season 3 — 2.3 million views
Moving right along, we’ll next take a closer look at the top two series this week, both Season 4 of Manifest in addition to Season 4 of Never Have I Ever, which came in at #2 worldwide for this latest 7-day snapshot. Before we do, however, a quick word about Netflix’s ranking methodology.
As of June 20, the company has started adding more detail to its weekly charts, which now include two other key pieces of data. The runtime for each movie and TV show is also included as part of the charts, and Netflix then divides each title’s total hours viewed by the runtime to calculate an average number of views. That average takes into account how the raw total of hours viewed doesn’t tell you how many people finished a title versus how many didn’t.
We still don’t know that, but by calculating an average number of views, you can get a picture of what the audience size would be if you spread the hours viewed evenly over a number of viewers who watch to completion.
#1: Never Have I Ever: Season 4
For example: The #1 Netflix show in the world this week on the latest Top 10 chart? That would be Season 4 of Never Have I Ever.
According to how Netflix presents these Top 10 charts now, the new season racked up 56.4 million hours of raw viewing time around the world between June 12 and June 18. But, obviously, not every fan of the show probably finished watching it during that 7-day window. So, what to do, if you’re trying to get a least an estimate of the size of an audience, not just how much time that audience spent watching?
Netflix has chosen to now spread Never Have I Ever’s 56.4 million hours this week evenly over the show’s audience (56.4 million, divided by the new season’s 4-hour and 55-minute runtime). That gives you a figure of 11.5 million.
What does that tell you? Well, if you took the viewers who didn’t finish watching the new season this week and combined them with the viewers who did, it would be the equivalent of 11.5 million Netflix households that watched the new season in its entirety.
Is that a perfect or even moderately useful data point for you? Personally, it’s not for me, because that average still falls short of what Netflix has never really presented a clear enough picture with these charts up to now: The delta between the share of an audience that finishes a show, versus the share that almost finishes, watches half, barely starts … you get the idea. However, Netflix is now ranking shows on the basis of this new “average views” metric, so for consistency’s sake, that’s what you’ll see above.
Now that I’ve finished rambling about the boring data, meanwhile, here’s what else to know about the #1 show on the Netflix top 10 list this week.
Never Have I Ever is a feel-good story about a modern-day, first-generation Indian-American teenage girl named Devi, played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan. She’s an overachieving high school student whose tempestuousness gets her into all kinds of difficult situations. Mindy Kaling created the series along with Lang Fisher, who serves as the showrunner.
“Never Have I Ever,” Netflix explains about the series, “has allowed viewers to be wallflowers at Sherman Oaks High for four seasons as Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and her best friends Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez) and Eleanor (Ramona Young) navigate their formative teenage years. Whether one of them is dealing with personal growing pains or the collective group is trying to get laid, the three awkward, nerdy, and ambitious friends have experienced the highs and lows of high school.”
If you’re in the mood for more dramas along the lines of Never Have I Ever, meanwhile, we also recommend checking out the following titles on Netflix:
#2: Black Mirror: Season 6
The #2 Netflix series on the global Top 10 ranking this week, meanwhile, is the sixth season of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, a trippy and mind-bending Netflix series that takes what are often the forgettable and ordinary things we encounter in our everyday lives and turns them into a vehicle for captivating “What if?” storytelling.
“I’ve always felt that Black Mirror should feature stories that are entirely distinct from one another, and keep surprising people — and myself — or else what’s the point?” Brooker, the show’s writer, creator, and executive producer, said in a Netflix interview. “It should be a series that can’t be easily defined, and can keep reinventing itself.”
To his point about surprising people and giving people content that makes them think, just pursue this episode titles and summations about the new Black Mirror season to get an idea of what viewers are in store for.
- Joan is Awful: An average woman is stunned to discover a global streaming platform has launched a prestige TV drama adaptation of her life — in which she is portrayed by Hollywood A-lister Salma Hayek Pinault.
- Loch Henry: A young couple travel to a sleepy Scottish town to start work on a genteel nature documentary, but find themselves drawn to a juicy local story involving shocking events of the past.
- Beyond the Sea: In an alternative 1969, two men on a perilous high-tech mission wrestle with the consequences of an unimaginable tragedy.
- Mazey Day: A troubled starlet is dogged by invasive paparazzi while dealing with the consequences of a hit-and-run incident.
- Demon 79: Northern England, 1979. A meek sales assistant is told she must commit terrible acts to prevent disaster.
Black Mirror, which racked up more than 58 million hours viewed around the world this week, is currently a Top 10 Netflix series in 91 countries around the world.
