Ginny & Georgia and Vikings: Valhalla – Pictures: Netflix
Thanks to the Netflix top 10s, we’ve got more insight than ever into what’s performing and what’s not. Every week, we assess the winners and losers of the top 10s in our Top 10 Reports but below, we’ll be looking back over the past year and see what shows are gaining viewership season over season and which ones are losing.
All data for this article was sourced entirely from the Netflix top 10 site. We’re using the views metric that Netflix publishes or what we sometimes refer to as the Completed Viewing Equivalent (CVEs for short). This is where you take the total hours watched and divide by the runtime of the series and movie.
Up: Ginny & Georgia
Picture: Netflix
That’s one of the most surprising Netflix success of 2023, one we did not really expect but Ginny & Georgia really did have a breakthrough second season in 2023. Season 1 was already good, with 42.5M CVEs over its first 28 days of release but season 2 blasted through that with 53.8M CVEs over the same time period.
The series was renewed for two new seasons, as it should with numbers such as these ones.
Down: Heartstopper
English romance series Heartstopper lost a bit of audience for the release of season 2, but it also showed that its core fans were here and eager to binge the season when it was released, as you can see here with the big jump right at the beginning of its curve.
Season 3 will be released in the fall of 2024, and its numbers might decide whether the series gets a fourth season or not. The creator of the show recently said that she’s hopeful for a season 4 pickup so we’ll see if it comes to fruition.
Down: Sweet Magnolias
The series your mom or grandmother loves to watch is currently in production for its fourth season and it better be a good one as season 3 of Sweet Magnolias was down from season 2.
In the first 14 days, season 2 of the show had 14.3M CVEs and in season 3, that reduced to 11.3M in the same period. A small decay but a decay nevertheless.
If it can sustain a moderate decay rate with season 4, that should be enough for another season but a further drop might spell the end of the series.
Down: Virgin River
Virgin River, another series aimed at women, is doing fine so far, but its last season (released in two batches) did less than season 4, which could be considered as peak viewership as we lack numbers on the first two seasons.
One of the show’s stars has noted that not being able to promote the most recent season (it was released during the dual Hollywood strikes) impacted the viewership.
Season 6 is in production, and if it can stay the course, there’s no reason a seventh season would not be in the cards.
Up: Never Have I Ever
Never Have I Ever ended its run with a fourth and final season. However, when looking at the numbers, the series still had gas in the tank for other seasons as it steadily improved its viewership between seasons 2 and 4.
In its first 14 days:
- Season 2 had 25.1M CVEs
- Season 3 had 28.6M CVEs
- Season 4 had 29.5M CVES
Even if we zoom out a bit, you can see how each new season’s numbers improved on the previous one.
That’s quite a peculiar trend for a Netflix series, a feat only achieved so far as we could tell by Stranger Things, which did that for its first four seasons. Now, the problem was probably that this series deals with high school, and four years/seasons is what it lasts. We haven’t heard anything about such a project, but I would not be surprised if a new series with the same cast was in development somewhere, maybe about how Devi navigates University or adult life. Netflix does remain in business with showrunner Mindy Kaling for a new basketball comedy series.
Down: Sex Education
Another teen series that ended its run after four seasons is Sex Education, but the trend was quite different. Even if it charted higher than Never Have I Ever throughout its life, the series did lose viewership between season 3 and its final season 4.
Down: Vikings: Valhalla
When season 1 of Vikings: Valhalla was released, it was a pretty good success, which prompted Netflix to renew the series for two new seasons. But when season 2 was released, its numbers were not as good as the series lost a good chunk of its viewership.
Had it not been renewed directly for two new seasons, I don’t think a third series would have been made.
Down: Welcome to Eden
The Spanish series Welcome to Eden was renewed for a second season after the good numbers of season 1, but its return showed quite a steep decay rate in its viewership. The decision from Netflix Spain was swift and the series was canceled.
Up: Outer Banks
Season 3 of Outer Banks improved just slightly on the numbers from season 2 when it was released in February 2023, with 37.9M CVEs compared to the 37.1M CVEs of season 2.
Now, with the main story of season 1 wrapped up in season 3 plus the cast being possibly attracted to other projects, and all the extra production costs associated with going over the third season, I thought season 3 would be the last. Still, it was renewed for a fourth season. So good for the Pogues!
Down: You
Peak viewership was presumably reached for season 3 for You, as the fourth season did not do as well. Now, I should mention that because the fourth season was released in two batches, comparisons with previous seasons are harder as people might have want to wait for all the episodes to be released before starting watching.
You was renewed for a fifth and final season that just started production.
Down: Elite
I honestly don’t know how Elite managed to get to eight seasons, but its low budget probably has something to do with it. Viewership on the Spanish series has been trending down since season 3, with huge drops from the fifth season down to the seventh.
The eighth season is supposedly its last, and that’s a gift from Netflix.
Down: Lupin
French hit series Lupin has not been able to replicate the success of season 1 with its two following seasons, shedding 50% of its viewership between seasons 1 and 3.
Now, in any other case, that would be enough to cancel it, but the first two seasons are in the all-time top 10 for international TV, and the third season narrowly missed it too. So we have an expensive series with a massive drop in viewership that still manages to do great numbers as international TV goes despite that drop. As of writing, it has not been renewed as a fourth season might not improve on the numbers of season 3 while being significantly more expensive. If I were a betting man, I would bet on a wrap-up/stand-alone movie rather than a full-fledged fourth season, but I’m not a betting man.