Netflix has released its semi-annual Engagement Report, giving details on what were the most popular shows on the streaming platform in the second half of 2024. 

There’s plenty of interesting data to dig into, and this is a pretty important report. Netflix is by far the biggest streaming site out there, and it produces some hugely popular sci-fi and fantasy shows and movies, like ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Squid Game’, so their decisions could have big implications for the genre.

Before we get into the data, it’s important to note how Netflix reports on a show’s success. They do this in two ways, with hours watched, and with views. The first of these isn’t as important, because it can be skewed by the length of a series or movie, which might not get as high a count simply because the episodes are shorter. The second metric is in views, which is a simpler way to look at things, though here it’s also important to note that a view doesn’t mean an episode or film was watched all the way through, but it would still count towards the total.

With that done, let’s get into the data, which has been divided between television and movies.

Television

Shows are where Netflix really shines, as despite their attempts to break into the industry, film still eludes them in many ways, not least because a laptop or phone isn’t the best way to view a movie. But their shows make up for that, and their output was consistent across the second half of 2024, as some big names returned for a second season.

Without doubt, the most-anticipated release of the whole year was ‘Squid Game’ season two, which broke all records. The South Korean show follows a group of contestants who take part in a game show with a huge cash prize, the only problem is, the games are lethal, and often fatal. Even though it arrived in late December, it was still the biggest release on the list, with a huge 620 million minutes watched, and 86 million views. This was a big step up from the second most popular show, original drama ‘The Perfect Couple’, which had 75 million views.

This will be good news for Netflix, which is releasing a third season of the show in May. This no doubt gave a big boost to the first season two, which managed an impressive 22 million views, even though it’s three years old.

Also on the list, ‘The Umbrella Academy’, a comedy about a family of superheroes, which had its fourth and final season debut in August, and brought in 27 million views.

A newcomer was ‘Supacell’, a British comedy following five black Londoners who develop superpowers through their sickle cell disease, and had 34.5 million views, which shows there’s still an appetite for superhero-centered shows, if they have a unique premise.

There weren’t many other high-profile live-action sci-fi and fantasy releases in the last half of 2024, beyond ‘Gyeongseong Creature’, a South Korean monster horror about biological experiments, set during WWII. It came back with a second season that managed 11.2 million views.

Then there was the inevitable show that gone cancelled after one season. In this case it was ‘KAOS’, a comedy about the Greek gods starring Jeff Goldblum, which pulled in 20 million views, clearly not enough to justify Netflix continuing it.

On the animated side of things, the real winners were kids shows, including multiple seasons of ‘Peppa Pig’ which have been licenced by the streamer. But in terms of their own content, there was one big series that released in November, the second season of ‘Arcane’, based on the game by League of Legends.

This made over 24 million views, and was released in three batches throughout November, bringing the show to a close, though spin-offs are reported to be in the works. It was less positively received than the first season from 2021, which was a critical hit.

Overall, sci-fi/fantasy animation didn’t have a good six months on the platform. The ‘Terminator: Zero’ anime got just 18 million hours watched, and not even 5 million views, despite an eight-episode run. It’s not uncommon for anime to be low performing, as it’s a niche genre, but the fact this was tied to the ‘Terminator’ franchise and still came in lower than 400th place on the list doesn’t hold well for the IP as a whole.

One argument against it being simply because it was animated is another series based on a legacy franchise, ‘Jurassic World: Chaos Theory’. This is a follow on to an earlier show ‘Camp Cretaceous’, which is aimed more at a younger audience, but managed 8.7 million.

Last year, Netflix acquired all six seasons of hit show ‘Lost’, the first of which alone brought in 16 million views, which shows why the streamer is so eager to get hold of these classic titles.

And looking to the future, two big shows are returning this year, with the fifth and final season of ‘Stranger Things’ and the second season of ‘Wednesday’. These shows still have a big following, as all seasons of the former brought in over 36 million views, while the latter had an impressive 17 million, showing why they are still investing in these titles, even if three years since the last outing is too long.

Movies

Let’s face it, movies aren’t Netflix’s strong point. They’ve become something of a joke for how bad they are, with derivative plots, bad acting, and poor dialogue. But still the streamers make them, and put out several originals a year, that invariably hit #1 on their charts for a week or two. At the same time, they license hundreds of other titles to ensure there’s always something new to watch on the site.

The biggest hit last year was ‘Carry-On’, a thriller about a bomb plot in an airport, that reached 137 million views, though it was only released in December.

There weren’t many SF&F movies on offer, besides ‘The Platform 2’, about a prison where the inmates receive food based on their status, that got 45 million views, and surprisingly, ‘Damsel’, a derivative fantasy starring Millie Bobby Brown that pulled in 30 million views, despite being released in March.

While animated family films like ‘Inside Out 2’ and ‘Moana 2’ dominated at the box office last year, Netflix’s own offering ‘Spellbound’, starring Rachel Zegler as a princess who has to fix a spell that turns her parents into monsters, didn’t fare so well, with only 35 million views.

It was the licensed movies that really did the numbers on the site. Animated offerings like ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ and ‘Dr Seuss’ The Grinch’ came high on the list, as did ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ and ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ (no doubt boosted by its third sequel releasing in December).

On a side note, none of the four ‘Rebel Moon’ movies made it into the top 100, though three of them released in the early part of the year, which says something about how many of these movies are ever re-watched.

Recent release ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ made 27 million views, in spite of a lukewarm reception at the box office back in March, as did ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’, the 2023 movie that’s become a fan favorite, even though it failed to make a splash with its theatrical release.

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The above numbers give some idea of how big sci-fi and fantasy is on the platform. Many of the streamers biggest hits are still in other categories like rom-coms and comedies, but even so, genre titles are big hits, with things like ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Squid Game’ giving the site some cultural impact.

With these shows returning later this year, along with other titles like ‘One Piece’ and live-action ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ getting second seasons, along with animated series like the ‘Devil May Cry’ anime to come, there’s plenty of SF&F to look forward too, and these genres are going to remain a big part of Netflix’s output in the future.