I'm not talking about any amorphous "most popular" lists in the app. Netflix publish weekly numbers on the hours viewed for the top shows / films. This is a fixed metric and a definite and comparable number. Here's the release week of 1899:
There is no chance that they're fabricating these numbers. First, that would be securities fraud. Second, it would not work as promotion channel because basically nobody would look at this website to decide what to view. But it is great for getting data for obscure internet fights!
Even after reading the fine print there it still isnt clear to me if those are the most watched things BY netflix ON netflix, or if it is the most watched ON Netflix.
The latter. But I don't understand how that could matter for the original claim on 1889's success: if it wasn't the #1 "by-Netflix-on-Netflix" show, it cannot have been #1 on a "on-Netflix" list either.
It was #1 for 0 weeks, #2 for 3 weeks, and plummeted off the charts quickly after that.