Picture: Netflix
What Netflix shows have Netflix users gotten through to the end of 2024? New data from London-based Digital i gives insight into the scripted shows that people started this year and got right through to the final episode.
Over the past few years, we’ve obtained more data than ever about your favorite Netflix shows and movies courtesy of data from the streamer itself and other third-party data companies. One metric that is often hard to get is the completion rate. The reason why we like this metric in particular as it can be key to seeing how likely a show will get renewed.
In 2022, we worked with them to look into various shows that had been canceled to see if there was a link between completion rate and cancelation and found that often, if a series isn’t completed by 50% of people that start, it is likely to face the chop.
Here’s a recap of some of their stats from previous reports:
- Squid Game – 87% completion rate
- Heartstopper – 73% completion rate
- Love, Death, and Robots – 67% completion rate
- Arcane – 60% completion rate
- Uncoupled – 59% completion rate
- The Lincoln Lawyer – 56% completion rate
- Pieces of Her – 54% completion rate
- DAHMER – 45% completion rate
- Resident Evil – 45% completion rate
- First Kill – 44% completion rate
- Inventing Anna – 42% completion rate
- The Irregulars – 41% completion rate
- Mo – 40% completion rate
That moves us onto what’s working well so far in 2024!
Before getting into these numbers, we should quickly recap how they work and where they come from. Digital i generates its metrics using panels, which is where they have a large number of users designed to mimic
The panels in these cases include users in a wide range of countries, including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Poland, Netherlands, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Japan, and South Korea.
This list includes two exceptions: 3 Body Problem and The Gentlemen. These are preliminary results based on viewing from only the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany.
Without further ado, here are the scripted shows with the highest completion rate in 2024, based on the first 30 days since launch:
- Fool Me Once – 68% completion rate
- The Gentlemen – 63% completion rate
- Berlin – 58% completion rate
- Griselda – 58% completion rate
- Avatar: The Last Airbender – 55% completion rate
- 3 Body Problem – 52% completion rate
- One Day – 49% completion rate
- The Brothers Sun – 44% completion rate
- Alexander: The Making of a God – 33% completion rate
- Boy Swallows Universe – 38% completion rate
3 Body Problem. (L to R) John Bradley as Jack Rooney, Jess Hong as Jin Cheng in episode 103 of 3 Body Problem. Cr. Ed Miller/Netflix © 2024
A couple observations from this list.
The Brothers Sun cancelation definitely falls within that sub-50% range, putting it at risk for the chop. The low upfront viewership combined with this completion rate likely cemented its fate.
Avatar: The Last Airbender and 3 Body Problem both got final season orders (albeit both are being split into multiple seasons) and based on the completion rate, you can see why. This data suggests many people bailed and would quickly hit a point of diminishing returns for subsequent seasons.
Finally, Fool Me Once is the obvious winner here and will be one of the standout series of 2024, making Netflix’s decision to invest in even more Harlan Coben series even wiser.
As added bonuses, Digitial also gave us the completion rate for the documentary series American Nightmare, which saw a staggering 72% of people get through to the final episode. We also got a completion rate for the live-action One Piece series released last year, which saw 57% of starters get to the end.
