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These are the shows that introduced people to binge-watching on Netflix

  • Ashley Rodriguez
By Ashley Rodriguez


This article is more than 2 years old.

For many, Netflix was a gateway drug to binge-watching, or watching multiple episodes of TV series in a single sitting. The streaming-video service brought seasons of TV shows—old and new—from different networks to members’ fingertips.

People who join Netflix begin their first binge-watching 12 days, on average, after signing up, and most finish a season within three days of starting it, Netflix found, based on an analysis of viewing patterns among members around the world who joined the platform in the past five years. It defined binge-watching as finishing at least one season of a series of 5 episodes or more within 7 days of starting, and excluded kids and family shows.

These were the shows that first got them hooked:

  1. American Horror Story

Half were Netflix originals series like Orange Is the New Black, and others, like Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, were popular TV shows licensed from other networks. In the US, Netflix’s largest market, Orange Is the New Black was the most popular show that got people into binge-watching, and six out of the top 10 were licensed shows like Sons of Anarchy and Family Guy:

  1. Orange Is the New Black
  2. Breaking Bad
  3. The Walking Dead
  4. Stranger Things
  5. House of Cards
  6. Sons of Anarchy
  7. Fuller House
  8. American Horror Story
  9. Family Guy
  10. Grey’s Anatomy

New Netflix members are getting started binge-watching sooner, the company also found. It took most people 20 days on average to have their first binge in 2012. In 2017, it took most just three days.

To find out what your first binge was, navigate to your Netflix account page, select “viewing history,” and scroll to the bottom (if you haven’t erased it.) This reporter’s was Weeds in 2010, roughly 8 months after joining Netflix.

