Welcome to your weekly roundup of the biggest stories from Netflix’s top 10 hourly figures for the week ending January 15, 2023.

Netflix updates its Top 10 Stats page weekly with 40 new figures per hour for the top movies and shows from the past seven days. If you want to easily browse the top 10 hourly data, visit our tool.

Note: In this report of Netflix hours watched from January 9, 2023 to January 15, 2023, we will use «Full View Equivalent» or CVE, expressed in millions. That means we divide the hours watched advertised by Netflix by the running time of the movies or series. It allows for better comparisons between movies and series, but it is not an audience metric. It is the minimum number of viewings if they were all complete from the first second to the last of the movie or season.


1. Season 2 of Vikings: Valhalla it has a moderate launch.

“Vikings Valhalla” season 1 kicked off with a bang in January 2022, so much so that the series was renewed for another two seasons, a rare feat for Netflix. Season 2 launched last week and was much more subdued, with just 8.6 million CVEs after four days, while Season 1 recorded 11.9 million CVEs after three.

vikings valhalla season 1 vs season 2 audience netflix cve

If a third season hadn’t been approved and filmed, I would have been very pessimistic about its chances of renewal. So let’s hope the story ends well in Season 3 because at this rate, Season 4 is unlikely.


2. The Hitchhiker Wielding an Ax climbs to the top of the charts

Sometimes you need a title like The Hitchhiker Wielding an Ax to break a record. The documentary launched last Tuesday and recorded 15 million CVEs in its first six days, making it the best launch for any documentary released on a Tuesday. Step aside Jennifer Lopez and Halftimehere comes Kai, the axe-wielding hitchhiker.

ax wielding hitchhiker cve audience first week netflix

The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker CVE first 6 days


3. Netflix’s Big New Sports Documentary Series breaking point failures

breaking point part 1 tennis official women pros netflix

Breaking Point – Picture: Netflix

breaking point it was supposed to be tennis what Formula 1: drive to survive had been in Formula 1 but the docuseries did not reach the Top this week.

Of course, with only five episodes under its belt, it’s at a disadvantage when Netflix counts hours watched, but still, the series failed to crack any weekly Top 10 in the world.


4. A tale of two series: Month is renewed and disengaged It is canceled.

Word got out last week about two Netflix decisions about some US series launching this summer: «Mo» and «Uncoupled.»

Neither of them did particularly well in the weekly Tops (disengaged only appeared in its second week). Given Netflix’s particularly bloody track record in recent weeks, those two series were lost to me.

But Month was renewed for a final season unexpectedly while disengaged it was actually cancelled.

In these streaming reports we often use numbers to explain cancellations and renewal decisions, but in the case of Month, the numbers are simply non-existent. In an article about the renewal, Netflix wrote about the critical praise received by Month and its creator Mo Amer.

Its budget is also visibly pretty low when you use three main factors: viewership, budget, and critical acclaim – the series clearly hits two of the three, which is enough to get a Netflix renewal.

These decisions allow us to begin building a scorecard for Netflix’s US series lineup for 2022 that can be summarized as follows:

netflix renewal scorecard 2022

(Green: renewed / Orange: Unknown / Black: Finished, limited series / Red: Cancelled)

Lo and behold, all of the series that had the most viewership in 2022 (and weren’t limited series for the most part) have been renewed. My gosh, how unexpected is that? And the canceled series are mostly the ones that didn’t do so well. Shocking, I know. Month seems to be the exception to the rule, so well done, Month.