In a move toward increased transparency, Netflix has begun sharing specifics regarding program consumption data. This week, the streamer released the first “What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report,” detailing how many hours the most popular content was viewed January to June 2023. On a call with reporters, co-CEO Ted Sarandos described the information as “a continuum” of improvements to viewership measurement. The report “covers more than 18,000 titles — representing 99 percent of all viewing on Netflix,” which for the six-month period totaled “nearly 100 billion hours worldwide,” according to Netflix.

The first of what Netflix says will be twice yearly engagement reports includes data such as:

• Hours viewed for every title — original and licensed — watched for over 50,000 hours
• The premiere date for any Netflix TV series or film
• Whether a title was available globally

Conceding that audits by a ratings service like Nielsen or the Media Rating Council would confer third-party legitimacy, Sarandos responded to a Variety question by stating, “this is our accurate data, the data we use to run the business.” Aternatively, Netflix “compiling the data to provide to a third party to provide it to you seems like a lot of steps for something that’s already a pretty heavy lift,” he said in Variety.

That being said, the top-five most-watched programs on Netflix in the six months ending June 30, per The Verge, were led by the first season of “The Night Agent,” “with more than 812 million hours viewed,” followed by “Ginny & Georgia: Season 2” (665.1 million hours); “The Glory: Season 1” (622.8 million hours), “Wednesday: Season 1” (507.7 million hours), and “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” (503 million hours).

The first of two films to crack the top 20 is “The Mother,” starring Jennifer Lopez, at no. 12 (249.9 million hours). The second is “Luther: The Fallen Sun,” starring Idris Elba, at no. 20 (209.7 million hours). Both were distributed and principally financed by Netflix.

The complete list — downloadable as an XLS file — contains more than 18,000 titles.