Netflix Tries To Trick Everyone Into Thinking The Witcher Did Better Than The Mandalorian

Wire

Netflix Tries To Trick Everyone Into Thinking The Witcher Did Better Than The Mandalorian

Netflix released it’s quarterly earnings report earlier this week and it showed some pretty strong numbers for the streaming company, with the company adding 8.8 million subscribers in the last 3 months of 2019 as opposed to the 7.6 million that it forecasted.

The company also highlighted some data on it’s smash hit, The Witcher, and this is where things start to become a little too obvious that the company is blowing its own trumpet. First off, Netflix revealed that The Witcher became the most “watched” first season of TV ever for the company, with 76 million households tuning in to watch it since its release. The stat may sound impressive at first but given that Netflix recently changed the criteria of what “watched” means, you might want to take it with a grain of salt.

“Watched” used to mean that viewers sat through at least 70% of a single episode of a series, which sounds fair, right? The new definition of “watched” however, requires viewers to choose to watch and only for a minimum of 2 minutes. 2 freaking minutes! Of course, Netflix explained its rationale behind the decision, stating that it follows similar metrics used by the likes of YouTube, and The New York Times but we all know that the real reason is to boost its numbers.

That’s not all Netflix has done though. In order to highlight how well The Witcher has done since it released, the company used a Google Trends chart which compared interest in the show to Disney+’s The Mandalorian. Of course, according to the chart, The Witcher absolutely butchered The Mandalorian.

The thing is though, Netflix removed context from the equation when showing off the chart results.

You see, Netflix ’s included chart relies on global Google search data. Of course a show that’s available globally is going to trump a show that’s only made available in certain parts of the world. I mean, just look at the numbers; Netflix is available in 190 countries whereas Disney+ has a presence in 5.

Add to that the stark difference in the release approach employed by both streaming services and you’ll get a better understanding as to why the notion that The Witcher blew The Mandalorian out of the water is misleading. Netflix releases all the episodes for The Witcher in one go, it’s only natural for The Witcher to see a spike in searches around the time of its release.

Disney+ employs a more traditional weekly release for The Mandalorian, and this consistent hype perhaps doesn’t achieve the same spike in searches that The Witcher did, but it’s a strategy that maintains its popularity and relevance throughout the season. The chart when adjusted from “Worldwide” to “United States” reflects that.