The Most Bingeable 2023 Netflix Series is Also Its Most Underrated

Summary

• Netflix has begun to measure viewer engagement based on the total number of hours watched.
• But there are other metrics that examine how bingeable a particular show is.
• As such, one of the most undeservedly overlooked but incredibly entertaining shows was Survival of the Thickest.

Netflix has begun providing data on the number of hours spent watching a particular show, identifying its most popular series over a period of time. However, the streaming service does not offer data on unique viewers or other metrics that could be used to infer subscribers' objective interest in particular shows. But there are independent platforms that offer much deeper analysis.

For example, the recently acclaimed series One Piece and Beef, which are among Netflix's top projects for 2023, are attracting a lot of viewers, but how often did viewers watch them with their eyes glued to the screen, rather than being forced to do so to keep up with the hype? And what percentage of people watch these shows through to the end? Fortunately, such data has been collected by one company, and it shows that audiences consider a very unexpected show more binge-worthy than other 2023 hits.

This Series Has Surpassed Both Beef and One Piece in Terms of Engagement

PlumResearch, an independent company based in Poland but relying on data from U.S. viewers, has put together a remarkable analysis of how particular shows released in 2023—Beef, One Piece, and Survival of the Thickest—performed. The series were examined from the perspective of 7, 28, and 90 days after their release.

The first two, of course, outperformed the competition in the categories of total hours watched and unique users: good media exposure allows shows to gain a much larger fan base.

However, Survival of the Thickest was Netflix's dark horse, revealing the true audience interest based on metrics like Binge Watching and Get Hooked in each of the time frames.

Binge Watching is calculated based on the percentage of unique users who watched multiple episodes at once and jumped to the next episode within two hours. Surprisingly, Survival of the Thickest beat all others in all three time categories with 83.08%, 83.89%, and 84.32%. Meanwhile, One Piece had 66.58%, 71.32%, and 71.75%. Beef had 76.07%, 80.57%, and 81.09%. That's a good indicator of how easy and consistent the narrative was without requiring too much effort on the part of the viewer.

Get Hooked is the episode where at least 70% of the viewers who watched it stayed to the end of the season. Survival of the Thickest also won here: after 7 days, many viewers were already interested in how the story would end after the fourth of a total of eight episodes (in the case of Beef, after the sixth out of 10, and One Piece, after the fifth out of 8). Survival of the Thickest improved to just three episodes after 28 and 90 days. Only One Piece showed a similar result in the 90-day category.

What's This Show About?

No matter how popular One Piece and Beef are, the huge influx of viewers does not always equate to the quality of the series itself. No, they are undoubtedly great and entertaining, but Survival of the Thickest, while having a smaller number of viewers, also gained a much more loyal audience that was interested in the series from beginning to end.

Thus, Survival of the Thickest is a criminally underrated show. It has a pretty good score on Rotten Tomatoes, however, with critics scoring it at 85% and viewers scoring it at 89%. Many have noted that it is a very straightforward comedy that manages to be both inclusive and silly at the same time.

The series was co-created by stand-up comedian Michelle Buteau, who also plays the lead role. The plot follows a black, body-positive NYC stylist navigating big city sexual and professional life after a devastating breakup.