Pictures: Netflix
Welcome along to another deep dive into the numbers behind the top 40 shows and movies for the past week! This week, we’ve got a lot to cover as Netflix’s international film and TV puts in a solid week of viewership with big new launches like Exterritorial and The Eternaut (given a quick season 2 renewal) plus a look at how well the new ensemble comedy The Four Seasons is performing as well as check-ins with Pulse, The Residence and Ransom Canyon.
Note: In this report of Netflix’s hours viewed from April 28th, 2025, to May 4th, 2025, we’ll use “Complete Viewings Equivalent,” or CVE, expressed in millions. That means we divide the hours viewed announced by Netflix by the runtime of films or series. It allows for better comparisons between films and series, but it’s 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 film or season.
1. Exterritorial
Another huge surprise this year on the international film front: the German thriller Exterritorial is off to a monstrous start with 38.3M CVEs in its first five days — the second-best launch for an international film behind Under Paris, and the sixth-best launch for a Netflix film released on a Wednesday since June 2021.
We may very well have the third international film of 2025 to break into the all-time Top 10 — or even a fourth if iHostage bounces back. An incredible year so far, and yet another confirmation that if there’s one genre that consistently works on Netflix, it’s the combination of a female lead and an international thriller, in all its forms. If you’re a producer with something like that in the pipeline, now’s the time to pitch it to Netflix.
2. The Biggest Fan
The Mexican comedy The Biggest Fan, starring Kate Del Castillo, isn’t exactly drawing massive crowds — it had a decent, but far from exceptional, debut with 4.7M CVEs in its first five days, well below the strongest launches for films coming out of Latin America.
3. The Four Seasons
The limited series The Four Seasons, starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey, had a solid but unremarkable start with 11.9M CVEs in its first four days, right around the average for 2025 limited series debuts, though on the lower end for U.S. titles. The show’s creators have hinted at their interest in making a second season if Netflix gives the green light, but it’s worth waiting to see how it performs in its second week. Based on these numbers, a renewal wouldn’t be a major surprise, but I’m not sure Netflix will rush into it.
4. Turning Point: The Vietnam War
The launch was far less impressive for the limited series Turning Point: The Vietnam War, which posted one of the weakest starts for a historical documentary series in my dataset, with just 2.1M CVEs over its first five days.
5. The Eternaut
From Argentina, the post-apocalyptic series The Eternaut is off to an excellent start. It scored the second-best launch for a new international series released on a Wednesday, with 10.8M CVEs in its first five days. The series has already been renewed for a second and final season, a decision that feels entirely deserved.
6. Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight
Regarding the Gallic animated series Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight, it’s worth noting that comparisons are hard to come by: of the 17 animated series released on a Wednesday since June 2021 in my dataset, only five managed to break into the Top 10 during their launch week, across a variety of genres and countries. That said, the French series posted the second-best launch of the group, behind Part 2 of Baki Hanma Season 2, but ahead of Disenchantment Season 4’s debut.
To give a bit more context: the most-watched binge-released animated Netflix series of 2024 was Jurassic World: Chaos Theory Season 1, with an estimated 10M CVEs in its first 14 days—a number Asterix & Obelix could potentially approach if it maintains its momentum. So yes, it’s an excellent debut by animated series standards, though animation remains a rather underperforming genre on Netflix, making this a “modest” success in the grand scheme of things. Still, early audience feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, making this at the very least a well-earned critical success.
7. Is there a problem with Netflix US series?
As we kick off 2025, the question is worth asking: among the last five U.S. series releases (excluding limited series) since December 2024, only one—Running Point—has been officially renewed so far. And when you look at the numbers, the picture becomes clearer: the other four are hovering between 13 and 19 million CVEs, falling short of what I consider the safe threshold for renewal—20M CVEs within the first 14 days.
As I mentioned in a previous edition, limited series have performed significantly better, and their numbers have grown. In fact, some have even been renewed despite their initial “limited” status, such as The Perfect Couple, Beef, and Monsters, all of which are now returning as anthology series.
Zooming out and excluding limited series from the equation, here’s what the broader picture looks like since June 2021:
I had forgotten just how disastrous 2022 was for new Netflix series, with cancellations piling up and miserable numbers across the board. However, Wednesday’s success seems to have boosted the following months, reducing cancellations and increasing renewals.
So, what about the fate of The Residence, Pulse, and Ransom Canyon? When you look at the ranking of new series for 2025, the outlook isn’t promising.
Ransom Canyon seems to be the best-positioned of the bunch, and its budget doesn’t appear to be extravagant, so a second season seems possible. On the other hand, The Residence will likely be converted into a limited series (yes, this shift does happen in reverse as well), without an additional season.
Pulse is the hardest to predict: on one hand, it’s Netflix’s first attempt at a medical procedural series, and cancelling it after one season would look bad. However, it’s not the most-watched medical series of 2025 on the platform, as the South Korean series The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call has performed significantly better and likely comes at a lower cost. We’ll have to wait a few weeks to see how this story unfolds.
Full Week Stats For April 28th to May 4th
English TV
Total views this week: 44,200,000 (Rank 54 of 98 weeks)
| Rank | Title | Hours | Views | Week # |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Four Seasons: Season 1 | 51,100,000 | 11,900,000 | 1 |
| 2 | You: Season 5 | 92,400,000 | 10,900,000 (+7.92%) | 2 |
| 3 | Ransom Canyon: Season 1 | 33,100,000 | 4,200,000 (-55.32%) | 3 |
| 4 | Raw: April 28, 2025 | 5,800,000 | 3,000,000 (-16.67%) | 1 |
| 5 | You: Season 1 | 21,300,000 | 2,800,000 (-72.28%) | 9 |
| 6 | Black Mirror: Season 7 | 15,200,000 | 2,500,000 (-44.44%) | 4 |
| 7 | Adolescence: Limited Series | 9,000,000 | 2,300,000 (-39.47%) | 8 |
| 8 | Battle Camp: Season 1 | 20,300,000 | 2,300,000 | 1 |
| 9 | Ms. Rachel: Season 1 | 6,800,000 | 2,200,000 (-4.35%) | 10 |
| 10 | Turning Point: The Vietnam War: Season 1 | 13,700,000 | 2,100,000 | 1 |
English Film
Total views this week: 55,200,000 (Rank 88 of 98 weeks)
| Rank | Title | Hours | Views | Week # |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Havoc | 47,300,000 | 26,500,000 (-11.07%) | 2 |
| 2 | Where the Crawdads Sing | 12,200,000 | 5,900,000 | 4 |
| 3 | Woody Woodpecker | 5,200,000 | 3,400,000 (-38.18%) | 4 |
| 4 | The Equalizer 2 | 6,900,000 | 3,400,000 | 2 |
| 5 | Fast X | 7,200,000 | 3,100,000 | 1 |
| 6 | The Life List | 6,300,000 | 3,000,000 (-45.45%) | 6 |
| 7 | The Heartbreak Kid | 5,300,000 | 2,700,000 | 1 |
| 8 | Despicable Me 4 | 4,100,000 | 2,600,000 (-10.34%) | 9 |
| 9 | The Boss Baby | 3,800,000 | 2,300,000 | 20 |
| 10 | The Two Popes | 4,800,000 | 2,300,000 (-28.13%) | 2 |
Non-English TV
Total views this week: 36,900,000 (Rank 12 of 98 weeks)
| Rank | Title | Hours | Views | Week # |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Eternaut: Season 1 | 58,300,000 | 10,800,000 | 1 |
| 2 | Weak Hero: Class 2 | 36,800,000 | 6,400,000 (+4.92%) | 2 |
| 3 | Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight: Limited Series | 17,500,000 | 5,800,000 | 1 |
| 4 | The Gardener: Limited Series | 12,100,000 | 2,600,000 (-46.94%) | 4 |
| 5 | Weak Hero: Class 1 | 12,100,000 | 2,200,000 (-63.93%) | 6 |
| 6 | Heavenly Ever After: Limited Series | 14,000,000 | 2,100,000 (-27.59%) | 2 |
| 7 | Resident Playbook: Limited Series | 20,700,000 | 2,000,000 (-4.76%) | 4 |
| 8 | The Glass Dome: Limited Series | 9,000,000 | 1,900,000 (-59.57%) | 3 |
| 9 | When Life Gives You Tangerines: Limited Series | 26,400,000 | 1,600,000 (-20.00%) | 9 |
| 10 | A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054: Season 1 | 3,400,000 | 1,500,000 (-61.54%) | 2 |
Non-English Film
Total views this week: 74,600,000 (Rank 2 of 98 weeks)
| Rank | Title | Hours | Views | Week # |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exterritorial | 69,600,000 | 38,300,000 | 1 |
| 2 | Bullet Train Explosion | 24,000,000 | 10,500,000 (-14.63%) | 2 |
| 3 | Jewel Thief – The Heist Begins | 16,300,000 | 8,300,000 (+6.41%) | 2 |
| 4 | iHostage | 10,000,000 | 5,900,000 (-78.07%) | 3 |
| 5 | The Biggest Fan | 7,300,000 | 4,700,000 | 1 |
| 6 | Unexplainable | 3,900,000 | 2,000,000 (-60.78%) | 3 |
| 7 | Mad Square | 2,900,000 | 1,400,000 | 1 |
| 8 | The Rose of Versailles | 2,500,000 | 1,300,000 | 1 |
| 9 | Counterattack | 1,700,000 | 1,200,000 (-29.41%) | 10 |
| 10 | Tenor | 1,700,000 | 1,000,000 | 1 |
That’s it for this week; we’ll be back next week for more insights into the weekly top 10s!
