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Netflix’s Biggest Hit Shows and Movies, Ranked (According to Netflix)

Netflix publishes weekly stats for its most watched series and films. We track the most popular of all time.

Netflix, for years, was notoriously tight-lipped about its viewership. But after a few years of dropping stats for some of its programming, Netflix launched a website in mid-November posting charts of its most popular shows and movies from the past week, as well as a global ranking of its all-time most watched titles.

The charts, which are updated every week and ranked by the total number of hours that subscribers spent watching them, represent an unprecedented trove of data about what’s popular on Netflix. The site details the most popular titles in the last week not only globally but also for more than 90 countries. And it’s meant to help subscribers like you get a better sense of the biggest hits on the world’s largest subscription streaming service, in the hopes you’ll discover something new to watch.

The company updates its weekly «Top 10 on Netflix» every Tuesday, based on hours viewed from Monday through Sunday the previous week for original and licensed titles. The rankings are broken down into top 10 charts for films in English, TV in English, films in non-English languages and TV in non-English languages.

A ranking of all-time most watched titles also lives on the site, detailing shows that have the most viewing hours in their first 28 days of release. If a new season releases its episodes in two parts on different dates, Netflix counts the watch time of the first volume’s episodes for their first 28 days, then it counts the watch time of the second volume’s episodes for their first 28 days. These all-time rankings are also updated every Tuesday, whenever any programs make it into the charts during the week prior.

Why you won’t see From Scratch or Inside Man in the rankings

Shows and movies need sustained popularity in many countries to crack into the all-time most watched charts. That means you can see titles ranked in Netflix’s app for days as being among the service’s most popular in your country, but they still may not be generating enough hours of viewing to make the all-time rankings.

From Scratch, a romantic limited series starring Zoe Saldaña, has pulled in nearly 155 million hours of watch-time since it came out Oct. 21, through Sunday. Inside Man, a British thriller limited series that’s already aired on regular TV in the UK, racked up 52.9 million hours in just seven days. And both have more time in their 28-day windows to generate watch-time that could get them into the rankings. But TV series need nearly half a billion hours watched to make it onto the all-time list, and even the most popular shows and movies need multiple weeks to accumulate enough.

Netflix’s most watched TV series, ranked

The following are Netflix’s most watched series, based on Netflix’s own reporting of total hours viewed in the first 28 days of each titles’ release. Again, if a new season releases its episodes in two volumes on different dates, Netflix counts the watch time of the first volume’s episodes for their first 28 days, then it counts the watch time of the second volume’s episodes for their first 28 days.

Any changes in the rankings from the previous week are in bold text.

  1. Squid Game (season 1), a Korean survival thriller — 1.65 billion hours.

  2. Stranger Things (season 4), a retro sci-fi series — 1.35 billion hours.
  3. Dahmer, a true-crime serial killer series — 856.2 million hours.

  4. Money Heist (part 5), a Spanish-language thriller — 792.2 million hours.
  5. Bridgerton (season 2), a period romance — 656.3 million hours.

  6. Bridgerton (season 1) — 625.5 million hours.
  7. Money Heist (part 4) — 619 million hours.
  8. Stranger Things (season 3), a retro sci-fi series — 582.1 million hours.
  9. Lucifer (season 5), a fantasy police procedural — 569.5 million hours.
  10. All of Us Are Dead, a Korean zombie thriller taking place in a high school — 560.8 million hours.
  11. The Witcher (season 1), a fantasy show — 541 million hours.
  12. Inventing Anna, a true-crime limited series about a fake socialite — 511.9 million hours
  13. 13 Reasons Why (season 2), a controversial teen drama — 496.1 million hours.
  14. Ozark (season 4), a crime drama series — 491.1 million hours.

Former top-ranking shows that have been bumped out of Netflix’s official all-time charts:

  • The Witcher (season 2) — 484.3 million hours.
  • 13 Reasons Why (season 1) — 475.6 million hours
  • Maid, a limited series about a young mother fleeing abuse — 469.1 million hours.
  • You (season 3), a psychological thriller — 467.8 million hours.
  • You (season 2) — 457.4 million hours.
  • Stranger Things (season 2) — 427.4 million hours.
  • Money Heist (part 3) — 426.4 million hours.
  • Sex Education (season 3), a British teen dramedy — 419 million hours.
  • Ginny & Georgia (season 1), a dramedy about a young mom and kids — 381 million hours.
  • Extraordinary Attorney Woo (season 1), a South Korean legal drama — 402.5 million hours.

  • Café con Aroma de Mujer (season 1), a Colombian telenovela — 326.9 million hours.

  • Lupin (part 1), a French heist show — 316.8 million hours.
  • Elite (season 3), a Spanish teen drama — 275.3 million hours.

  • Who Killed Sara? (season 1), a Mexican mystery thriller — 266.4 million hours.
  • Elite (season 4) — 257.1 million hours.
  • The Queen of Flow (season 2), a musical Colombian telenovela — 230.3 million hours.

  • Lupin (part 2) — 214.1 million hours.
  • Dark Desire (season 1), a Mexican dramatic thriller — 213 million hours.

Netflix’s most watched movies, ranked

The following are Netflix’s most watched movies, based on Netflix’s own reporting of total hours viewed in the first 28 days of each titles’ release. Any changes are in bold text.

  1. Red Notice, an action movie starring Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds — 364 million hours.
  2. Don’t Look Up, a dark comedy with a star-packed cast — 359.8 million hours.
  3. Bird Box, a post-apocalyptic movie starring Sandra Bullock — 282 million hours.
  4. The Gray Man, a CIA action thriller — 253.9 million hours.
  5. The Adam Project, a sci-fi adventure comedy — 233.2 million hours.
  6. Extraction, an action movie starring Chris Hemsworth — 231.3 million hours.
  7. Purple Hearts, a romantic drama about a musician marrying a Marine — 228.7 million hours.
  8. The Unforgivable, a drama about a woman rebuilding her life after prison — 214.7 million hours.
  9. The Irishman, a period Mafia epic directed by Martin Scorsese— 214.6 million hours.
  10. The Kissing Booth 2, a teen rom-com sequel — 209.3 million hours.

Former top-ranking movies that have been bumped out of Netflix’s official all-time charts:

  • 6 Underground, a Michael Bay explosion-fest starring Ryan Reynolds — 205.5 million hours.
  • Spenser Confidential, an action-comedy starring Mark Wahlberg — 197.3 million hours.

  • Enola Holmes, a period detective film — 189.9 million hours.
  • Army of the Dead, a heist set in a zombie apocalypse — 187 million hours.

  • The Old Guard, an action-thriller starring Charlize Theron — 186 million hours.
  • Murder Mystery, a comedy starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston — 170 million hours.

Netflix appears to have never released a non-English-language film that generated enough viewing hours to make it into an overall top-watched ranking. But additional widely watched non-English language movies on Netflix have included:

  • Blood Red Sky, a German/British action horror film set during a plane hijacking — 110.5 million hours.
  • The Platform, a Spanish social commentary wrapped in a horror film — 108.1 million hours.
  • Black Crab, a Swedish apocalyptic war thriller starring Noomi Rapace — 94.1 million hours.
  • Through My Window, a Spanish teen romance — 92.4 million hours.
  • The Takedown, a French cop comedy — 78.6 million hours.
  • Below Zero, a Spanish action thriller about a breakout from a prison transport vehicle — 78.3 million hours.
  • All Quiet on the Western Front, a German war drama — 71.5 million hours.
  • Loving Adults, a Danish thriller about an extramarital affair — 67.3 million.
  • Rogue City, a French action thriller about an unorthodox team of cops — 66.6 million hours.
  • Carter, a South Korean action thriller about a man who wakes up with no memories and a voice in his ear — 65.4 million hours.
  • The Forgotten Battle, a Dutch World War II film — 60.9 million hours.

Former top-ranking non-English movies that have been bumped out of the non-English top 10 include:

  • Restless, a French action thriller — 59.1 million hours.
  • Lost Bullet, like a Fast & Furious movie but French — 58.3 million hours
  • Spoiled Brats, a French comedy about rich siblings tricked into earning their own living — 56.9 million hours.
  • #Alive, a South Korean movie about a gamer’s bid to survive the zombie apocalypse — 54.6 million hours.
  • Space Sweepers, a South Korean space western with a weaponized child-android — 53.3 million hours
  • The Last Mercenary, a French action movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme — 52.1 million hours.
  • Just Another Christmas, a Brazilian Christmas comedy — 48 million hours.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Sept. 6

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Sept. 6.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.


Today’s Mini Crossword is extra-long, as usual on Saturdays. And a couple of the clues were stumpers! Need answers? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: U.S. prez who served four terms
Answer: FDR

4A clue: Hurry, in Shakespearean English
Answer: HIE

7A clue: Only country to have a musical instrument (the harp) as its national emblem
Answer: IRELAND

9A clue: Big name in rum
Answer: BACARDI

10A clue: She holds the record for most #1 Billboard hits by a female rapper (5)
Answer: CARDIB

11A clue: Ancient time-tracking device
Answer: SUNDIAL

12A clue: Ctrl-___-Del
Answer: ALT

13A clue: Opposite of SSW
Answer: NNE

14A clue: Used to be
Answer: WAS

15A clue: Jupiter or Saturn, primarily
Answer: GAS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Small lie
Answer: FIB

2D clue: Whom Count von Count of «Sesame Street» is a parody of
Answer: DRACULA

3D clue: Takes back, as testimony
Answer: RECANTS

4D clue: 1920s U.S. president
Answer: HARDING

5D clue: Home to the W.N.B.A.’s Fever
Answer: INDIANA

6D clue: Weed gummies
Answer: EDIBLES

8D clue: Cooking grease
Answer: LARD

11D clue: Observed
Answer: SAW

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Technologies

Researchers Discover 18 Popular VPNs Are Connected: Why This Matters

All are owned by 3 separate groups but CNET’s recommended VPNs are not on the list

Virtual private networks are popular ways to keep your online activity private and hide your physical location from your internet service provider and apps. But it’s obviously important to choose a safe and secure VPN.

Three university researchers have discovered that 18 of the most widely used VPNs have shared infrastructures with serious security flaws that could expose customers’ browsing activity and leave their systems vulnerable to corrupted data. These VPNs are among the top 100 most popular on the Google Play Store, comprising more than 700 million downloads.

Read more: Best VPN Service for 2025: Our Top Picks in a Tight Race

The peer-reviewed study by the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium found that these VPNs, despite calling themselves independent businesses, are actually grouped into three separate families of companies.

None of CNET’s recommended VPNs — ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN and Mullvad — are on the list. (If you currently don’t have a VPN, here’s why you might want to start using one.)

According to the findings, these are the three groups that contain the 18 VPNs:

  • Family A: Turbo VPN, Turbo VPN Lite, VPN Monster, VPN Proxy Master, VPN Proxy Master Lite, Robot VPN, Snap VPN and SuperNet VPN
  • Family B: Global VPN, Inf VPN, Melon VPN, Super Z VPN, Touch VPN, VPN ProMaster, XY VPN and 3X VPN 
  • Family C: X-VPN and Fast Potato VPN

Researchers determined that the VPNs in Family A are shared between three providers linked to Qihoo 360, a firm identified by the US Department of Defense as a Chinese military company. The VPNs in Family B use the same IP addresses from the same hosting company.

Know your VPN’s parent company

It’s a cautionary tale about why it’s important to know who’s behind the VPN you’re using, says CNET senior writer Attila Tomaschek. 

«It’s also crucial to know what kinds of data the VPN provider is sharing with its parent company and affiliated entities,» Tomaschek said. «Some of these companies may even be compelled to log customer activity and share it with authorities, depending on the jurisdiction in which they operate.»

Despite the warnings, Tomaschek says it’s not so easy to figure out who controls your VPN. But he says there are measures that customers can take.

«Users can do a few things to help ensure the VPN they’re using is reputable,» Tomaschek says. «Check the privacy policy — specifically for terms like ‘logging,’ ‘data sharing’ or ‘data collection.’ A Google search of the provider can help determine whether the VPN has been involved in questionable activity. Read detailed, unbiased reviews from reputable sources. Be especially wary of signing on with a free VPN, even if it’s listed as a top choice in your app store.»

The PETS researchers examined the most downloaded VPNs on Android, looking for overlaps among business paperwork, web presence and codebase. After identifying code similarities, they were able to group the 18 VPNs into three groups. The study was initially spurred by VPN Pro’s own findings, «Who owns your VPN? 105 VPNs run by just 24 companies

CNET’s Tomaschek has advice for anyone who has been using one of these 18 VPNs. 

«I’d recommend deleting it from your device immediately,» he said. «If you suspect that any sensitive personal data may have been compromised, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on your credit report and look into services like dark web monitoring or identity theft protection.»

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Sept. 6, #348

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Sept. 6, No. 348.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.


Today’s Connections: Sports Edition was a stumper. But if you play cards, the green group is a fun one for sure. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.  

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Racket time.

Green group hint: Ante up!

Blue group hint: NY signal-callers.

Purple group hint: Coach’s CV.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Tennis statistics.

Green group: Poker variants, familiarly.

Blue group: Giants QBs, past and present.

Purple group: Teams coached by Lane Kiffin.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is tennis statistics. The four answers are aces, double faults, unforced errors and winners.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is poker variants, familiarly. The four answers are hold ’em, horse, Omaha and stud.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Giants QBs, past and present. The four answers are Manning, Simms, Tittle and Wilson.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is teams coached by Lane Kiffin. The four answers are Mississippi, Raiders, Tennessee and USC.

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