American Murder, Enola Holmes, and more: Netflix announces ‘viewing figures’ for recent TV shows and movies

Netflix has revealed its latest round of viewing figures for popular releases over the past few months.

The streaming service unveiled its financial details for its third quarter and, according to the findings, American Murder: The Family Next Door has broken Netflix records.

It is the most successful documentary to have been released on the streamer to date, with 52m households watching in its first 28 days.

Billed by viewers as "one of the hardest things" available to watch on the streaming service, the documentary tells the story of Shanann Watts, who was murdered by her husband, Chris Watts in 2018. 

He also killed their two daughters, aged three and four.

Following up close behind as the second most-watched Netflix documentary ever is The Social Dilemma, which managed 38m households.

Film wise, Enola Holmes  – starring Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown – and Charlize Theron action film The Old Guard were viewed by 78m households.

Trailing these titles were Jamie Foxx superhero outing Project Power and The Kissing Booth 2 with 75m and 66m views, respectively.

Other recent shows expected to have amassed huge audience figures include Emily in Paris and The Haunting of Bly Manor.

Many people have issues with the way Netflix measures its viewing figures.  

It is regularly noted how the service picks and chooses which titles it releases stats for, with a view to highlighting its successes – and that it has recently changed how it registers views.

While the service used to count a view when a user streamed at least 70 per cent of a title, it now registers them when any account has watched at least two minutes of a film or TV show.

Netflix’s belief is that if someone watches two minutes of something, they have made an intentional choice to keep it on. Autoplay is not taken into account.