Umbrella Academy: S4 Tops Netflix’s August 2024 Rankings with 110m Viewing Hours
Top 20 Global TV Hits: Is Netflix’s algorithm changing?
Mentioned in this article: Netflix, Ryan Murphy Productions, Bad Robot, MTV Ent, JAX Media UCP, Kinetic Content, Moonage Pictures, Campfire, A Fabrica, ABC Studios MGM, History, Sony Pictures, Westbrook,
Nielsen, and more.
In August 2024, The Umbrella Academy (Universal Content Productions) emerged as Netflix’s most-watched show globally, with 110m viewing hours. Closely behind was Emily in Paris: S4 (MTV Entertainment/Jax Media/Darren Star), despite being available for only two weeks of the month.
What’s interesting is that both shows delivered significantly fewer viewing hours than July’s top performer, Desperate Lies, which amassed 185m viewing hours. Collectively, the Top 20 TV hits were down 11% from July’24 and 22% from August of 2023 in global viewing hours. This decline mirrors the trends we observed in July.
However, Nielsen’s The Gauge reported a year-on-year increase in the audience for Netflix (and the entire streaming category) in July. What’s the disconnect? Considering The Gauge only measures TV sets in the US, could it be that Netflix’s viewership grew in the US while declining elsewhere? That seems unlikely. Instead, it’s possible that viewership is spreading out across a broader range of content beyond the Top 20 shows. Whether this shift is a function of Netflix holding back releases, or a tweak in its algorithm....