Pictured: The Recruit, The Snow Girl, and Lucca’s World
Welcome to your weekly rundown of the biggest stories from Netflix’s top 10 hourly figures drop for the week ending February 2nd, 2025. An interesting week in the top 10s with a few returns, a new entry in Netflix’s overall top 10 most watched list, a major documentary flop, and much more!
Note: In this report of Netflix’s hours viewed from January 27th, 2025 to February 2nd, 2025, we’ll use “Complete Viewings Equivalent,” or CVE, expressed in millions. That means we divide the hours viewed announced by Netflix by the runtime of films or series. It allows for better comparisons between films and series, but it’s not an audience metric. It is the minimum number of viewings if they were all complete from the first second to the last of the film or season.
1. The Recruit just got fired.
Netflix’s PR team must have been running on pure optimism (or maybe just really strong coffee) when they claimed in their latest press release that The Recruit was still a hit. But once you take off the rainbow-tinted glasses and actually look at the numbers, things aren’t looking good for Season 2. Season 1 pulled in decent—though far from groundbreaking—numbers, and Season 2? It’s shaping up to be neither decent nor groundbreaking, with a drop from its predecessor.
One might think that the drop between Season 1 and 2 isn’t that significant, but the season length actually works in favor of Season 2 here. The real test is to compare it with other second seasons that premiered on a Thursday in my dataset. Here’s what we found:
The verdict seems clear: if The Recruit wasn’t renewed for two seasons right after its first one (and it appears it wasn’t), then it’s goodbye—since the renewal threshold is around 10M CVEs in 4 days. (I made an error on the chart; Vikings: Valhalla had also been renewed for two seasons directly after Season 1.) But hey, I’m sure that since Netflix says it’s a hit, they will have no trouble renewing it for a third season, right? We’ll see, but I’m not so sure I’ll stand corrected. On the other hand, XO, Kitty should have no trouble getting renewed.
2. American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson Bombs
If even a docuseries about O.J. Simpson can’t set the counters spinning, where is the world headed, dear old lady? That’s probably what Netflix US’s docuseries team is thinking, as their show American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson has posted one of the weakest debuts for a true crime docuseries in the past 52 weeks.
3. The Snow Girl Season 2 got snowed in.
It’s nothing short of a disaster for the return of The Snow Girl, the Spanish crime series whose first season was a surprise hit. None of that success carries over to Season 2 (which tells a separate story from Season 1, aside from the main protagonist), as it looks headed for an 80-90% drop in viewership compared to the first season. Oof.
4. The Hooligan is no High Water
There seems to be a clear threshold for a Polish Netflix series, as The Hooligan hits it this week with 3.6M CVEs in its first five days—similar to Go Ahead, Brother, which debuted just over a month ago, but ahead of Hound’s Hill, released three weeks ago. Not every show can be High Water, though the next Polish disaster series, set to premiere in 2025, might just break the curse.
5. Back in Action Is Riding On Up To The All-Time Top 10 List
Three weeks after its release, let’s check on Back in Action, which is still riding high. After its first 14 complete days, the film starring Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx scores the 5th-best debut for a new Netflix film since June 2021, with an estimated 105.7M CVEs in its first 14 days.
6. Lucca’s World
It’s an excellent start for the Mexican film Lucca’s World, which has 8.4 M CVEs and claims the best three-day debut for a Latin American film released on a Friday.
That’s all for this week. Feel free to let us know what you think in the comments below, and don’t forget to check out our analysis on which Netflix shows and movies for 2024 picked up the WGA streaming bonus.
