Three Kenyan movies make it to Netflix's most-watched films globally
Disconnect: The Wedding Planner was rated as the most viewed Kenyan Film. Netflix released its viewership data for the first time, to keep up with growing competition.
What you need to know:
- "Disconnect: The Wedding Planner" by David ‘Tosh’ Gitonga released in January 2023 ranked as the most popular Kenyan film.
- "Married to Work" released in February 2023, came second with 1.2 million viewed hours.
- Since launching our weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists in 2021, Netflix has provided more information about what people are watching than any other streamer except YouTube.
- "Country Queen" which is Netflix’s first-ever Kenyan series clocked one million viewed hours at position three.
Three Kenyan films have made it to the list of the most-watched films on Netflix globally. Netflix, a video-on-demand streaming service, released its viewership data for the first time, in an attempt to keep up with the growing competition and appease creators and advertisers.
It released the most watched films from January to June 2023, with only three Kenyan titles having garnered six-figure viewed hours.
According to the report What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report, "Disconnect: The Wedding Planner" by David ‘Tosh’ Gitonga released in January 2023 ranked as the most popular Kenyan film.
The spin-off to "Disconnect" released in 2018, garnered 7.4 million viewed hours and was the only Kenyan title that was available globally. "Married to Work" released in February 2023, came second with 1.2 million viewed hours.
The much-hyped, Germany-funded title "Country Queen" which is Netflix’s first-ever Kenyan series clocked one million viewed hours at position three.
“Since launching our weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists in 2021, Netflix has provided more information about what people are watching than any other streamer except YouTube.
And now we believe it’s time to go further. We believe the viewing information in this report combined with our weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists will give creators and our industry deeper insights into our audience and what resonates with them,” Netflix said.
"Disconnect" the first Kenyan film to be featured on Netflix was fourth with 300,000 hours viewed, tied with Reuben Odanga’s movie "Nafsi."
"40 Sticks" a production by Fakii Liwali which was Kenya’s submission to the Oscars in 2020, came fifth, garnering similar viewed hours of 200,000 as "Chaguo", a film by Vincent Mbaya released in 2022.
The report shows what people watched on the platform globally based on hours viewed for every title, (original and licensed) watched for over 50,000 hours.
Mr Gitonga made a film breakthrough with his "Nairobi Half Life" released in 2012 and it was the first Kenyan film to be selected for the Oscars at the 85th Academy Awards. It had 100,000 viewed hours same as "Ayaanle" and "Poacher" released in 2018.
A majority of Nigerian and South African titles are made available globally with no Kenyan title available except "Disconnect: The Wedding Planner. "
In Africa, South Africa led with the most-watched titles in the content with eight of them making it into the top 10 list and Nigeria taking the remaining two spots.
Over the years, Netflix has invested heavily in South African and Nigerian markets compared to Kenya. It injected over Sh19 billion in South Africa and Sh3.5 billion in Nigeria, markets that are favourable in terms of distribution rights, copyrights and royalties’ enforcement.
The Netflix report, set to be released twice a year, covers more than 18,000 titles and nearly 100 billion hours viewed.
In 2021, Netflix switched its metrics from the number of accounts watching a particular title to hours viewed in what it described as a slightly better indicator of the overall success of their title and member satisfaction.
According to the report, "The Night Agent" series released on March 23, 2023, was Netflix’s most popular title in the first half of the year garnering 812.1 million hours of viewership ahead of the fourth-placed "Wednesday" series released on November 23, 2022, which clocked 507.7 million on the first half.
