A Video Game Trailer Was Netflix's Most-Watched English Film Late Last Month. Here's Why This Matters for Investors.
Netflix recently featured a trailer for the upcoming video game Grand Theft Auto VI as its most-watched English-language content, highlighting a shift in the platform's strategy toward 'moments' rather than just long-form hours. This move underscores a growing partnership between streaming services and gaming companies for marketing and distribution.
Why it matters
This strategy signals a potential evolution in how streaming platforms measure engagement and monetize non-traditional content to attract subscribers.
Netflix 's ( NFLX -0.34% ) most-watched English-language film during the week of Aug. 24 to Aug. 30 was not at all a Netflix film. It was Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look, a 27-minute trailer for the video game that Rockstar Games will release in November. The trailer earned 31.1 million views and topped the list in 87 of the 93 countries that Netflix monitors.
Netflix premiered it on Thursday, Aug. 27, and Rockstar posted the same footage on YouTube, for free, six hours later.
It's strange to see at the top of a film list. But it fits with what Netflix has been telling investors it wants: moments, not hours.
Netflix counts a view by dividing total hours watched by a title's runtime, so a 27-minute trailer needs much less watch time than a two-hour film to register a high figure.
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