New H2 2024 Netflix Kids Content Performance Report is out!!
The latest Netflix Kids Content Performance Report is out! It’s with clients, it’s on the website, and I swear every time we produce a new edition, the latest is immediately my favorite one yet. If you’re new around here, catch up on the background below:
This report covers numerous exciting core trends from an independent perspective. Myself and my team independently review the data Netflix have published. In H2 2024 we’re seeing moves among top-ranking Preschool content; CoComelon’s crown is definitively slipping and there are a number of other IPs poised to fill the gap. We look at the building playbook for animated girls brands, and further smashes, crashes and flashes among newly launched series. And we’ve done a deep dive on Netflix’s presence on Roblox, a key platform when looking to connect with younger audiences.
This is also the first edition of the report with an expanded scope of animated movies. This genre remains a key focus for Netflix, as I unpacked in my latest earnings notes. Looking at the six-monthly engagement dumps it’s easy to see why. Third-party animated features, particularly those coming from Illumination and DreamWorks (think franchises like Minions, Sing, The Boss Baby, Trolls) make up a significant proportion of Netflix’s top-ranking content across all audiences and genres. In fact, these movies drove over 2B hours viewed on the streamer in 2024.
Netflix remain committed to cracking this format. Something they’ve been grinding at since at least 2020. Back then Ted Sarandos stated:
“Our animation ambition right now is not just to step up and be as big as someone who’s doing it today — we’re on a path to be releasing six animated features a year, which no major studio has ever done”
Big plans gone cold unfortunately. Their latest high-profile animated feature, Spellbound, was not a hit. I’ve written extensively about the provenance of this film; catch up here, here or here at your leisure. Netflix had been on an upward stroke on movies, having batted high with The Sea Beast (sequel confirmed) and higher with Leo (sequel rumored). The data is in, however, and we can clearly see that Spellbound did not follow in these footsteps. I'll be writing the final view on this in the next few weeks.
Casting the view further than launch, we can also see the long tail value of movies on the streamer. Which titles bring in audiences on an ongoing basis, and which give the distinct whiff of vanity project. Looking more broadly, we are also tracking the extent to which a franchise film, either in cinemas or on streaming, will impact derivative content. Here we’ve identified interesting trends for both Sonic 3 and Transformers One.
Launching this project has been satisfying on many fronts. Firstly, the trends that come rolling in with each wave remain buoyant and bustling. Every time we go fish in the sea of data we catch things we expect and things we didn’t. I would not continue to roll the reports along if it wasn’t a compelling story every single time. Secondly, we have a critical mass of great clients that share our belief in the value that this work delivers for the industry. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for enabling the analysis to proceed. It would be the biggest waste if this data dropped every six months and we all sat there thinking “wouldn’t it be good if someone did something with that.” Having built the project up from pilot into going concern, I can confirm that the insights we’re drilling are seriously valuable. We wouldn’t be able to do this without clients on board. If your company is interested in joining the inside, please drop me a line at emily@ehorgmedia.com.
Finally, we remain so grateful for the continued support from the industry on this endeavor. This time around we had amazing coverage from licensing.biz, World Screen and What’s on Netflix with a more to come.
Since the start of the year I’ve also had the chance to present findings at the TV Kids Global Festival and the Kidscreen Summit, and in numerous webinars online and in person. It’s been a dream to chat about the data in person! Beyond all this, ongoing likes, shares and engagement from everyone on LinkedIn make such a difference. There are many folks I’ve met on that platform who have been key advocates in getting this report into companies. I massively appreciate you.
So what’s next? Roll on data for 2025. Netflix have committed to dropping these data dumps twice a year, in line with earnings. That means we can plan for the next wave to hit sometime in late July. We are working on building out our database of live-action movies before then and tracking a number of key trends in animated series. Beyond that, we are toying with a genre expansion. Teen content and anime would be obvious directions to expand. Please drop me a DM if you have a particular interest in either of these.
Between now and then there is plenty more stuff on the horizon.
, and myself are on the cusp of a few exciting announcements about the Kids Media Club Podcast. As mentioned, I have a plan to write up final thoughts on Spellbound, with every data receipt I can get my hands on. I also owe Ms. Rachel a round-up. I did her dirty in a LinkedIn post a few weeks ago. The picture for her content on Netflix is looking good. And finally, I feel a revisit to Gabby’s Dollhouse is also in order, ahead of its theatrical movie coming later this year. The show had some really great results in this report.As always, I remain deeply grateful for everyone’s engagement with this work. Whether you’re a client who makes this analysis possible, an industry colleague who shares the findings, or someone who simply enjoys the insights—thank you for being part of this wild ride of understanding children’s entertainment in the streaming age. Here’s to mining more fascinating data discoveries in the next few months!