The most in-demand show available to stream on Netflix in August was Stranger Things. It had a whopping 121.5 times the average series demand in August, a month after it released the last batch of episodes in its fourth season. While the degree to which Stranger Things has become a cultural touchstone is impressive, it looks like Netflix has been resting on its Stranger Things laurels lately. None of the other shows in the top ten were a Netflix original.
In a normal month, the exceptional demand for Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul would have put them in the running for the top spot. With 71.56x and 68.18x respectively they ranked behind Stranger Things this month. The finale of Better Call Saul on August 15th boosted demand for both series. While Netflix does not yet have the latest season of Better Call Saul (still on AMC+), fans looking to continue watching chronologically from the prequel finale will be able to find all of Breaking Bad on Netflix.
In addition to Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, The Walking Dead also ranked in the ten most in-demand shows on Netflix. This means three of the ten most in-demand series on Netflix this month were from AMC, showing that this channel is the origin of some of the most popular content critical to platforms like Netflix.
Other licensed content which is driving the most demand for Netflix this month included the ever popular Outlander from Starz which had 30.19 times the average series demand. The CW’s The Flash had 41.92 times the average series demand. Three anime series also ranked among the top ten on Netflix - Attack on Titan, One Piece, and Naruto.
Netflix original movies seem to be doing a better job of pulling their weight in August. The Gray Man topped the ranking with 26 times the demand of the average movie. It became available on Netflix at the end of July and the platform is already banking on its success with a sequel and spinoff planned. Two other Netflix movies, the action comedy Day Shift and animated kids movie The Sea Beast, also made it into the platform’s top ten this month.
The only non-English film to rank among the ten most in-demand movies on Netflix in the US was RRR. The Indian film premiered in March but came to Netflix in May and has had a fairly high level of demand in the US since then.
The hodge-podge assortment of Spider-Man movies available to stream on Netflix are staying high in demand. Even with the latest Tom Holland Spider-Man movies unavailable to stream on the platform, Marvel’s multiverse twist in the latest movie has given these older films a sustained boost in demand. Netflix should be thanking Disney.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Story gets an honorable mention this month. It didn’t quite break into the top ten but fell just short with 14.1 times the average movie demand for the month of August. It clearly benefited from increased interest around the Breaking Bad franchise as Better Call Saul reached its finale.
