The now-cancelled Territory was Australia’s best-performing title on Netflix in the second half of last year, according to the streamer’s latest engagement report.
Released bi-annually, What We Watched offers viewership data across nearly 7000 titles on the platform, representing about 99 per cent of all video watch time.
Territory, which follows the battle for a controlling stake in the “biggest cattle station in the world”, came in at number 39 in the rankings, clocking up 19.5 million views in the July to December reporting period, despite only being released in October.
The figures come a week after Netflix ANZ confirmed the series had not been renewed for a second season, with a source close to the production citing logistical factors as an obstacle in continuing the story.
It means the series has the dubious honour of being one of the most-watched cancelled series in the second half of last year, only four positions behind Greek mythology comedy KAOS, which Deadline reported as being the most-watched cancelled series with 20.3 million views.
Of the other recent local titles, the next best were The InBESTigators S1 & S2 (6 million views and 5.1 million views), and Gymnastics Academy: A Second Chance S1 (5.7 million views), Surviving Summer S1 & S2 (3.6 million views and 3.2 million views), Heartbreak High S1 and S2 (1.8 million each), and Boy Swallows Universe (500,000 views).
At the top of the list was the second season of the Korean thriller series Squid Game, which despite its December release, managed 87 million views.
It was part of a strong performance from non-English shows and films, which made up a third of all viewing on Netflix. Other popular titles included Norway’s La Palma (52 million) and Mexico’s The Accident (41 million) among our most-watched series in the second half.
True crime remains a popular genre, with strong numbers recorded forThe Menendez Brothers (39 million), American Murder: Laci Peterson (37 million), Worst Ex Ever (26 million), Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter (25million), and The Lost Children (22 million).
Find the full report here.
*A previous edition of this article said Territory had ranked 45.