Pictures via Netflix
What’s the most popular series produced and made in your country? We’ve got the answer to that question with the results from 27 countries thanks to the Netflix top 10s.
Please note that this is a companion piece to our movie equivalent that we released in February 2024, looking into the most-watched movies originating from over 30+ countries. This post originally appeared in French on the Netflix and Chiffres Substack.
For this analysis, I used our Complete Viewing Equivalent metric over the first 14 days of release of a new Netflix Original series (season 1 or limited series) released between June 2021 and January 2024. The CVE metric is obtained by dividing the number of hours viewed released by Netflix every week by the series’ runtime. This metric is what Netflix now calls “Views.”
I also used the regional organization enforced by Netflix with six big geographical areas: UCAN (The US and Canada), LATAM (Latin America), APAC (Asia and Pacific), Europe, Middle East, and Africa (that Netflix aggregates into an EMEA area).
The most-watched Netflix Original series from 27 different countries.
Before we dive into the data, we decided to choose only the new series released between June 2021 and January 2024 because these are the new shows that might carry the service in the coming years, when The Witcher, Stranger Things, and Bridgerton will be no more. These are the newly emerged successes of the service and let’s start with this infography that shows the most-watched new Netflix Original series from 27 different countries.
World Map with the Most Popular Netflix Series (Click image to open enlarged)
Out of these 27 series, 10 are limited series with no follow-up season in the works but are completed stories that will populate Netflix’s virtual shelves for years to come. Netflix has been criticized for canceling shows, but limited series avoid that risk, even though it’s difficult (not impossible) to capitalize on their successes.
Six are in limbo, either renewed, finished, or canceled. Still, we would not know about it before some time as Netflix (especially outside the US) has had a long-standing tradition of quietly canceling shows without coming forward with the news. Here at What’s on Netflix, we track these quiet cancelations and most of the time, the news come from the creators themselves some months or years after. So, officially, they are in limbo.
Ten have been renewed for new seasons that already came out or are in production. These ongoing series might become the next go-to for keeping subs or acquiring new ones, just like Stranger Things.
Finally, one has been canceled, which is rare at this international success level. Now, the Israeli series Hit & Run was not a typical international series as it boasts an impressive cast for an international series and was set mainly in New York. So, the objectives for its renewal might have been higher than had it been a traditional international series.
As with films, Africa feels underrepresented in this chart as Netflix is just starting to release series from this territory and only contains one title from South Africa. Nigerian series Anikulapo released just a few days ago is probably the start of something new for Netflix in Africa.
Top 10 most-watched new Netflix Original series per geographical area
To dive deeper into the data, I looked at the Top 10 most-watched new Netflix Original series from each zone, starting with the US and Canada, Europe and Asia Pacific, the three most significant areas in terms of successes and output.
The most interesting thing is that there is one clear winner in each of the three territories. Wednesday was huge in the US, nearly having twice as much viewership as the second new series.
In Asia-Pacific, there’s no stopping Squid Game which did basically three times what the usual successful South-Korean series do.
In Europe, Fool Me Once is a surprise hit and the first surprise hit of 2024, but that’s also the only one of the three here that will not come back for a new season as it is a limited series.
In the UCAN region, five series out of the Top 10 are limited series titles. Now, the frontier between on-going series and limited series is sometimes blurred as Dahmer proved. Intended to be a limited series, it has been renewed under the title “Monster,” with each new season taking a closer look at a different serial killer.
BEEF is also in that category, as news of a second season with a completely different cast has emerged over the past few weeks, just days after the limited series cleaned house in the various awards ceremonies in the limited series category. The Watcher is also an interesting case as it was intended too to be a limited series based on an article. Still, it was too renewed for a second season, even though it adapted everything available in that real story. We haven’t heard anything about the production of that second season, so it might pull a Ratched in the end.
In Europe, six series out of the Top 10 are limited series, and two of them are from the Harlan Coben Universe (Fool Me Once and Stay Close). The United Kingdom is releasing more limited series than other European countries. We also have in Europe another case of limited series being renewed in the end with The Snow Girl, a Spanish series adapted from a set of books. Each season will use the same detective but on different cases, which is again the perfect thing for Netflix as it can quietly cancel it if it does not do well while having audiences believe they watched a complete series, or renew it and capitalize on the success of the new season. Germany is also having quite a strong slate so far. Still, we have to talk about 1899, one of the most ambitious and multicultural show to come out of Netflix in Europe, with a considerable production cost and lots of promotions that in the end failed to resonate with audiences. Same as Hit & Run, had it been a “regular” German series with a much cheaper budget, it would have been renewed, but for bets like this one, Netflix is expecting more than “regular” viewership.
In Asia-Pacific, there’s Squid Game and everything else. As quiet cancelations go, South Korea is a very difficult country to examine as it has a long-standing tradition of limited series, especially for K-Dramas. But Netflix has renewed South-Korean shows while keeping the lid on the fate of other series such as Black Knight, Bloodhounds… They might be limited, they might be canceled, we don’t know. We reported a few weeks ago that some South-Korean series have been recategorized as limited series in the wake of the publication of the Netflix Engagement Report, so we might see some new info on them when the next Engagement Report is released, in June.
No big worldwide success has come out of Latin America, the Middle East and Africa over the past two years and a half. However, there has been some interesting things coming out of Colombia for instance, which manages to put two series in the Top 3 in Latin America. The opacity on the fate of series is even more significant in Latin America as we are still waiting on any confirmation on three Mexican series that did quite well there: Pact of Silence, The Surrogacy and The Five Juanas.
In the Middle East, Turkey proves again to be a force to reckon with, but contrary to films, other nations, such as Israel and Jordan, managed to enter the Top 10.
Conclusion
Next year, Stranger Things will end, and Netflix will need a monster show to carry it forward in the years after. “Wednesday” fits the bill perfectly however one might wonder how long Jenna Ortega will be interested in the role as she seems not very invested for season two. Season 3 is all but assured at this point.
Squid Game is more interesting as its pitch can be adapted anywhere in the world or in various formats. Squid Game: The Challenge was a huge success back in November, and rumor has it that David Fincher himself is working on an American version of Squid Game, one that would be wise not to be a remake of the South Korean series but a new story set in this world, expanding even its universe, as Bird Box Barcelona did for Bird Box.
The Night Agent, Monster and One Piece could be reliable hits in the future but as we said, The Watcher season 2 might not see the light of day. It is too soon to tell but Avatar: The Last Airbender might also be one of the future hit shows from Netflix.
The Harlan Coben Universe has been around for years, with British, Polish, and French adaptations. That will continue on the heels of Fool Me Once. Finally, the success of Berlin also opened the door to future spin-offs set in the Money Heist universe (even after the flop of the south-Korean series). Our very own Kasey here has been preaching relentlessly for an Indian spin-off, so time will tell!
Tell us in the comments which series you see being hits in the future for Netflix!
