The latest Netflix Engagement Report, released just a few days ago (see the press release here), confirms that over half of all viewing hours on the platform between July and December 2024 were driven by titles produced in the United States. Despite Netflix’s stated commitment to local content, American series and films—according to an analysis by CeRTA for AnnuariodellaTV based on data from FlixPatrol* (which assigns a nationality to each title in its ranking here)—accounted for 59.7% of global viewing hours on the streaming service.
At least based on Netflix’s own (and thus unverifiable) first-party data, subscribers continue to favor Hollywood productions. While the top-ranked title is the South Korean hit Squid Game, an overwhelming 18 out of the 20 most-watched titles (both series and films) are American. This dominance shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that, as reported by the European Audiovisual Observatory, even in Europe—where some of the strictest regulations for promoting local content are in place—EU-produced titles made up just 30% of total Netflix viewing time in 2023. This imbalance isn’t new; it has been a fixture in cinema for decades, where U.S. productions have traditionally commanded around 60% of the European box office. Netflix’s U.S. dominance is even more striking when factoring in other English-speaking countries, such as the United Kingdom (5.3%) and Canada (1.5%). Once again, this underscores the Anglo-Saxon world’s outsized influence in shaping global streaming catalogs and dictating audience viewing habits.
America First, Far East Second
By cross-referencing Netflix data with FlixPatrol, a provisional ranking of countries based on total viewing hours can be compiled. The U.S. leads by a wide margin, but South Korea (bolstered by Squid Game and the romantic comedy Love Next Door) and Japan (driven by its powerhouse anime industry, including Dan Dan Dan and Demon Slayer) take second and third place, though at a significant distance. These two countries account for 8.9% and 5.4% of total viewing hours, respectively.
The UK follows with 5.3%, while Spain (2.4%) ranks as the top EU country, thanks in part to the medical drama Breathless, the eighth season of Elite, and its linguistic reach across Latin America. Other notable players in the upper ranks, though likely still underrepresented, include several Global South countries such as Mexico (1.9%), India, and Colombia (both around 1.7%).
A particularly intriguing case is Russia, which ranks 19th. Despite Netflix ceasing operations there at the onset of the war in Ukraine, Russian audiovisual content still managed to rack up nearly 337 million viewing hours, largely thanks to animated hits like Masha and the Bear and Booba, as well as the dystopian series Better Than Us. This suggests that, despite sanctions, Russia remains a relevant market for Netflix, which lost roughly 700,000 subscribers in the country in 2022—the same year the platform introduced its ad-supported subscription tier.
And What About Italy?
Italy saw slight growth compared to the first half of 2024, surpassing 700 million viewing hours (0.8% of the total) and ranking 13th worldwide. This is a respectable result given its smaller linguistic market, though it still lags behind comparably sized European countries such as France (10th place, 1.3%) and Germany (12th, 0.9%).
Among Italian original series, the passionate drama Deceitful Love led the pack with 131 million hours watched and 27.2 million views, though it was outperformed in terms of views (a remarkable 43 million) by another Italian title: the thriller movie Vanished into the Night. Italian animation also held strong, with Mermaid Magic, an international co-production created by Iginio Straffi of the Rainbow Group, solidifying the success previously seen on Netflix with Fate: The Winx Saga.
(Nicola Crippa – CeRTA)
*The estimates for viewing hours and national percentages are still being refined by FlixPatrol. As lower-ranked titles worldwide are correctly classified, these numbers may see slight adjustments in the coming days.
