‘Society Of The Snow’ among most watched films on Netflix; UK shows shine

Spanish Oscar nominee Society Of The Snow was among the most watched films on Netflix in the first half of 2024, according to the streamer’s latest viewership data.

JA Bayona’s real-life disaster drama was at number three in the chart, behind action titles Damsel and Lift, with 103.8 million views. Other notable titles in the top 100 included Sam Esmail’s Leave The World Behind, in 35th place with 40.5 million views, and Richard Linklater’s 2024 Venice premiere Hit Man – 47th with 30.9 million views.

Maestro, which scored seven Oscar nominations, was viewed 5.8 million times in the time period, while double nominee Nyad was on 11.2 million.

On the TV side, UK-commissioned titles make up more than a quarter of Netflix’s top 20 watched shows, with more than 2 billion hours watched between them.

British-shot titles – Fool Me Once, Baby Reindeer, Bridgerton and The Gentlemen – topped the bi-annual What We Watched chart, with American Nightmare seventh, One Day tenth and Eric in at 17. Whilst Shonda Rhimes-created Bridgerton is a US commission, it is filmed and made in the UK.

Animation Avatar: The Last Airbender was the most-watched, non-UK-made series.

Netflix launched the What We Watched report in December 2023 with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos saying increased viewer transparency would help it rebuild trust with the industry. The report encompasses nearly all of its catalogue, with more than 18,000 titles analysed.

According to the latest report, audiences watched 94bn hours of Netflix content, which was just ahead of the previous six-month period.

Most viewed films - Jan-June 2024

A version of this story first appeared on Screen’s sister site Broadcast

• Oscars best international feature 2025: all the films submitted so far