While original shows on Netflix get the most attention, the most-viewed shows on the streaming service are almost all off-network shows, according to a study by 7Park Data.
In June, Orange Is the New Black, which had just released new original episodes, jumped to quickly become the No. 1 show on Netflix around the world, 7Park said, based on data on 1 million over-the-top users who collectively stream more than 1 million hours of content each day.
Stranger Things was also among the series released by Netflix in June but to less initial fanfare. It slowly became a hit through praise by critics and word of mouth. 7Park expects the eerie show to appear in the July rankings.
The rest of the top 10 shows on Netflix in June were How I Met Your Mother, Pretty Little Liars, Supernatural, Family Guy, Grey’s Anatomy, Friends, Prison Break, The Walking Dead and The Vampire Diaries.
In the U.S., the most streamed shows were Orange Is the New Black, Family Guy, The Office, American Dad! and Friends.
“Library content comprises a substantial majority of the viewership. This is to expected: library content titles outnumber original content titles,” 7Park said in its report. Original content in June represented 13.7% of Netflix viewing, with library content the remaining 86.29%.
7Park says the ratio can change when new original content gets released. On March 18, after season 2 of Daredevil dropped, original content jumped to 23.7% of Netflix usage.
7Park says that when a new season of a show launches on Netflix, viewing for all of that show’s prior seasons also increase. That goes for both original shows as well as acquired shows. In June, the increase in viewership for prior seasons for Orange Is the New Black was larger than it was for Pretty Little Liars. 7Park attributes that to the fact that Liars had already appeared on cable earlier in 2016.
Studios that sell shows to Netflix have been seeking data about viewership on Netflix, which is not rated by Nielsen and does not release data about how many people watch individual shows. Nielsen has begun generating some data on how many people are watching Netflix shows and has shown early data to the studio.
7Park says 21st Century Fox Television has the shows that are most streamed on Netflix, with popular titles including Family Guy, American Dad!, House and Prison Break. Fox was also the top studio in May.
Warner Bros. is the runner-up for the second straight month, with shows including Gossip Girl and Friends being streamed.
Tilted Productions, Jenji Kohan’s company, which produces Orange Is the New Black, and Lionsgate, which co-produces the series for Netflix were third and fourth, followed by ABC Studios.
The top TV show genres on Netflix were sitcoms, crime shows, crime dramas, action and adventures and mysteries.
