Top 15 Gaming IPs on Netflix by Hours Watched
January to June 2023
This morning, my good friend Nathan Sellyn shared a fascinating post on LinkedIn about the top 15 gaming IPs on Netflix by hours watched. What captivated me even more was LinkedIn pushing me to Nathan's humorous comment on someone else's post, where his work on this very data was used without proper attribution. Inspired by Nathan's insights (stealing his hours of work), I decided to delve deeper into this rich data set recently released by Netflix.
Pokémon Takes the Crown, Witcher Follows Closely
No surprise here – Pokémon reigns supreme, with a whopping 261 million hours watched across 29 titles between January and June 2023. But The Witcher is hot on its heels, amassing over 233 million hours spread evenly across its three seasons and limited series.
Family Friendly Content Dominates
Family-friendly content is the largest pie, with IPs like Pokémon, Sonic, Angry Birds, CupHead, Rabbids, Wakfu, and Skylanders collectively responsible for over 56% of total watched hours among these 15 IPs. This highlights the immense potential of wholesome gaming entertainment on Netflix.
The Witcher: A Force to Be Reckoned With
The Witcher - a fantasy action RPG game developed by CD Projekt Red and published by CD Projekt. Beyond its second-place overall ranking, The Witcher's impact is undeniable. It claims 26.8% of total watched hours among these 15 IPs, with Season 3 alone garnering 33,400,000 watched hours in just 2 days of its release! Considering this season dropped only a day before the June 30th cutoff, The Witcher's trajectory suggests it could surpass Pokémon as the most-watched gaming IP by year-end.
What will the future hold?
From Pokemon's long-lasting success to The Witcher's rapid rise, the spectrum of popular gaming IPs on Netflix hints at a diverse audience hungry for a multitude of experiences. But what's next? Will family-friendly adventures continue to dominate, or will narrative-driven sagas or other new trends steal the spotlight?