The Most Viewed TV Series on Netflix MENA in 2023
The Streaming Lab #38
Hey streamers 👋
Welcome to the 38th edition of The Streaming Lab. Thanks for reading me!
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The agenda today
This week, I’m looking at the most viewed TV series on Netflix in 10 countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
Where to get Netflix Top 10s?
The TV series at the Top
The countries of origin
BONUS: get full access to my data
Where to get Netflix Top 10s?
Netflix launched in 2021 a website with Top 10 lists based on most watched movies and TV series: top10.netflix.com
Here is the main data you’ll find:
Global Top 10: Weekly Top 10 lists of the most-watched TV and films
Films (English), Films (Non-English), TV (English) and TV (Non-English)
Number of weeks in Top 10
Number of hours viewed
Top 10 By Country: Weekly Top 10 lists of the most watched TV and films in countries around the world
Films or TV
93 countries (10 from MENA)
Number of weeks in Top 10
I focused my analysis on the Top 10 TV series from 2 January to 12 February in 10 MENA countries available on the website: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE.
On more thing: Netflix engaged EY – an independent accounting firm – to review the weekly lists. Does it mean we can trust them?
The TV Series at the Top
44 TV series reached Netflix Top 10 in - at least one of - the following MENA countries this year: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE.
Only 12 TV series made it to the Top in all 10 countries:
Emily in Paris (Season 3, USA)
Ginny & Georgia (Season 1 & 2, USA)
Kaleidoscope (Limited Series, USA)
Physical: 100 (Season 1, South Korea)
Shahmaran (Season 1, Turkey)
The Snow Girl (Limited Series, Spain)
True Beauty (Season 1, South Korea)
Vikings: Valhalla (Season 1 & 2, USA)
Wednesday (Season 1, USA)
You (Season 4, USA)
Let’s go deeper in the analysis and look at the countries of origin ↓
The countries of origin
The donuts below will give you the countries of origin of the Top 10 TV series on Netflix Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE.
My objective is to better understand if Netflix subscribers in Morocco or Egypt have the same viewing activity than their neighbours in Saudi Arabia or UAE.
Take your time to look at it and draw your own conclusion before reading my insights.
My 5 main insights:
Most watched TV series available on Netflix MENA come from 12 countries: USA, South Korea, Japan, India, Israel, Turkey, Brazil, France, Kuwait, Spain, UAE and UK.
The most successful TV series are originally from the US: 13 shows reached the Top 10 on Netflix UAE, 12 on Netflix Jordan & Lebanon, 11 on Netflix Bahrain and 10 on Netflix Egypt & Morocco.
Korean series are the second most viewed TV content, from 35% to 9% of the Top 10 titles on Netflix Qatar & Lebanon.
Only 2 series originally from the MENA region reached the Top 10 in 2023: Scattered Barriers and The Exchange.
6 TV series made it to the Top 10 with more than 1 season: Alice in Borderland Season 1 & 2, Fauda seasons 1, 2, 3 & 4, Friends seasons 1 & 2, Ginny & Georgia Seasons 1 & 2, Vikings Valhalla seasons 1 & 2 and You seasons 1 & 4.
In conclusion, I expected more significant differences between Netflix Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
But it looks like Netflix subscribers watch almost the same TV series in the Gulf, Levant or Maghreb. Netflix subscribers from all over the region mainly watch content coming from 5 origins: USA, South Korea, Japan, India, Israel and Turkey.
Can we assume Netflix only reaches a limited audience from the MENA region, looking for international TV series?
It would be interesting to cover a longer period of time this year to validate or update this analysis.
BONUS: Get full access to my data
Access the Google spreadsheet I used to create my donuts and find:
The 44 TV series that reached Netflix Top 10 in MENA this year
The countries of origin for all TV series, at a Netflix country-level
That’s all for today, the most viewed TV series on Netflix Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE in 2023.
See you online next week. Until then, enjoy Kaboos on STARZPLAY, a modern-day retelling of Arab folklore, taking you on a journey through frightening urban legends from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and the UAE, with five standalone episodes depicting a spine-chilling modern retelling of a story inspired by regional mythology.
Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you with:
If you want to learn more about streaming in MENA, I’d recommend starting with my market report:
→ The Streaming Ecosystem in MENA: Learn everything about the local streaming services in the region. Get full access here.
Work with me 1:1 to diversify your streaming revenues: FAST channel business, OTT/CTV Advertising, Content acquisition & distribution, Market analysis and business representation.
Brilliant Insights. However, Physical 100 is Korean origin content and not Japanese https://g.co/kgs/8hLfyCV.
thanks for this valuable information.
Really interesting data. I think you are on target asking if Netflix only reaches a limited audience in MENA which is looking for international content. Netflix has been increasing their offering of Arabic language movies and series but I don't see any in these top 10 lists. I think there are two things going on: first is that Netflix subs in MENA are a self-selecting high-income minority, and second that these Netflix subs turn to other sources for their Arabic films and dramas. I will be interesting to check this data again during Ramadan. Also -- is there any per-country breakdown of Netflix's MENA sub numbers?