📈 Methodology
Metric used in this analysis: Millions of CVEs, i.e. Complete Viewings Equivalent over the first 28 days of release. I divide the hours viewed (from Monday to Sunday of the previous week, across 192 countries) from Netflix’s Top 10s by the runtime of the titles in order to compare programs of different lengths released at different dates. This is not a measure of audience in viewers, but an arbitrary indicator that has also been used by Netflix since June 2023 under the label “views.”
For many years, before the era of public viewership data for Netflix programs, it was sometimes difficult to understand why a given title was cancelled or renewed, and what criteria Netflix was using. Since mid-2021 and the introduction of the first weekly Top 10, things have become a bit less mysterious—and incredibly enough, these decisions are generally based on viewership. I know, it’s shocking.
For new series, invisible factors come into play, such as how many new subscribers a show brings in or the season’s retention rate, but for series with at least two seasons, there are two factors that can be estimated using the weekly Top 10s that come into play when considering a potential renewal:
Raw viewership in CVEs. As long as you’re above 20 million CVEs after 14 days, you’re usually fine. Netflix has cancelled only one new season of a series that had crossed this threshold, and that was Fate: The Winx Saga (20.8M CVEs after 14 days for its second season).
Season-to-season audience erosion. The smaller it is, the better.
If a series meets both conditions, it’s great and it gets renewed for an additional season, or even two. If a series meets only one of the two factors, that’s usually fine as well, typically for one season (final or not). If a series meets neither, in theory it’s done for, and cancellation is just around the corner. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how English-language Netflix series that returned with a new season in 2025 performed.
