A 27-minute video game preview, a South Carolina true crime case and a Guy Ritchie gangster series relocated to an Italian lake. Netflix's early September chart is an odd one, and British viewers have shaped their own version of it. The official figures for the week ending 30 August put a documentary at the top of the UK list, with the third series of Love Is Blind: UK right behind it. Here are the titles running the platform, and the numbers behind them.
Death of the Pastor's Wife, the UK's number one
The most watched series in Britain last week was a three-part documentary released on 26 August. Death of the Pastor's Wife revisits the death of Mica Miller, the wife of a South Carolina pastor, and the questions left hanging over it. Worldwide it drew 19 million views and 43.3 million hours in its opening week, taking the top spot on the global chart as well as the British one.
Measured against the rest of the year, that is a hefty total. Only three English-language series have launched bigger since January: the fourth series of Bridgerton on 39.7 million views, the I Will Find You limited series on 24 million and HIS & HERS on 19.9 million. True crime remains one of the few formats that can reach number one without a single famous name attached.
It’s impossible to witness the ways violence, tragedy and pain are made into a few hours of entertainment and not feel nauseated.
Every record of this kind reopens the same argument. Rebuilding a victim's story in forensic detail, these documentaries are regularly accused of repeating the control they set out to expose. The question of what the filmed families actually consented to comes back with each new hit, and it has never once dented the audience.
GTA 6, the preview that beat every film
The single most watched thing on Netflix last week was neither a film nor a series. Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look, a 27-minute presentation of the next Rockstar game, pulled 31.1 million views in four days, between 27 and 30 August. Netflix held it exclusively for six hours before it reached YouTube, and it still finished first in 87 of the 93 countries the platform tracks. It topped the UK film chart too.
One caveat is worth spelling out, because it explains how these numbers work. Netflix counts a view by dividing total hours watched by the running time, so a short title inflates the view count automatically. The GTA 6 preview racked up 14 million hours, while The Whisper Man, second with 23.2 million views, gathered 44.1 million. Subscribers spent three times longer with the film.
By that measure, an impressive number of people watched the extended trailer as soon as it came out on Netflix, showing just how much fans are anticipating the game’s release.
The signal for Netflix is the interesting part. By acting as the launch pad for a long trailer, the platform has stepped onto ground it never used to claim: the free cultural event, with no plot and no cast. Gaming is becoming a loss leader for streaming services, much as live sport and stand-up already are. Anyone weighing up which service is worth keeping can compare TV and streaming packages before the autumn schedule fills up.
Beauty in Black series 3, the real record
Second on the global chart with 13 million views, the third series of Beauty in Black quietly took the week's most meaningful record. Tyler Perry's eight episodes gathered 81.4 million hours of viewing, more than any other title on the chart, the number one documentary included. In the UK it placed third.
The gap between the two measures describes two different habits. A three-part documentary is done in an evening, while an eight-episode family saga holds a subscriber for days. That accumulated time matters more to a platform than a spike of curiosity, because it is what decides whether the subscription survives the next billing date.
It’s more entertaining than the last season, but there’s nothing that truly makes any of this memorable.
The series follows the Bellaries, a cosmetics dynasty whose secrets resurface every year. The formula makes no secret of its excess, and reviewers regularly complain that it opens more threads than it closes. That permanent cliffhanger is precisely what manufactures the viewing hours the latest figures have just confirmed.
The Gentlemen series 2, the hit without a number yet
The next phenomenon has already started, and its numbers are not in yet. Released on 3 September, the second series of The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie's gangster drama, went straight to number one in 49 countries and charted in 88 of them according to daily trackers. Netflix will not publish official figures until Tuesday, since the relevant week has only just closed. The pull was visible before it even landed: series 1 re-entered the UK top 10 at number nine in the week to 30 August, its tenth week on the British chart.
The first run leaves little doubt about the scale to expect. It opened on 12.2 million views, climbed to 20.1 million the following week and finished on 69.5 million views across ten weeks in the global top 10. In Britain it held number one for five straight weeks. Netflix commissioned a third series before this one had even aired.
It’s a tonal shift away from the comedy that was so evident in Season 1, but the move is for the better as The Gentlemen transforms and evolves into something completely new.
Much of this series moves to Lake Maggiore, where Eddie and Susie try to buy their way into the Italian underworld, with Sergio Castellitto, Benedetta Porcaroli and Michele Morrone joining the cast. The gamble is turning a British success into a European franchise, even if that means shedding some of the very English humour that carried the first run. Bingeing eight episodes in a weekend also assumes the line can take it, which is where the fastest broadband deals earn their keep. The verdict lands on Tuesday.