Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been left red-faced after their Netflix series was outperformed by a long-running children’s show.
The couple’s documentary about their courtship, marriage and exit from the royal family, which came out in December 2022, was watched for 62 million hours in the first half of this year.
In comparison, the first two seasons of children’s cartoon Peppa Pig were watched for more than 140 million hours.
Netflix released viewing figures after being criticised for a lack of transparency about how shows and films perform on the platform.
But the most-viewed show in the first half of 2023 had 13 times the amount of hours viewed as Harry & Meghan.
The Night Agent, an American action thriller which premiered at the end of March, was watched for 812 million hours by Netflix users in just three months.
It was followed by Ginny & Georgia for 665m hours, The Glory for 623m, Wednesday for 507m and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story for 503m.
The document on Netflix’s engagement hours included 18,000 titles – with nearly 100 billion hours watched in total from January to June of 2023.
The report stated: “Success on Netflix is not determined by hours viewed alone. It’s all about whether a movie or TV show thrilled its audience and the size of that audience relative to the economics.”
Netflix not releasing view-time data about shows was central to the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes. Both groups were calling for higher royalties for shows that performed well on streaming services.
Views from and shows released in the second half of the year were not eligible for the count.
