Top 2024 Global Kids Content on Netflix by Trending Top 10s
Happy 2025 folks! Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday break. Sending love to all LA based readers. The scenes look truly terrifying. Please take care of yourselves.
My 2025 resolution is to write more newsletters! Let’s see if I can keep it up. Who wants to track the data?
The end of the year means annual score cards, which in kids streaming means looking at what content thrived or “won.” First dataset past the post on Netflix is the Trending Top 10s, as compiled by the wonderful team atFlixPatrol, dived into extensively by the smart guys at What’s on Netflix. The linked article reviews the rankings globally, for the US, and for the UK, and is well worth a look.
Other races where we’re still waiting for data are US Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings, which I’d expect to hit end of January/early February. Plus the H2 2024 Netflix Engagement data DUMP which will drive the next instalment of my latest project, the Netflix Kids Content Performance Report. Here’s hoping for my sanity that this won’t come any earlier than Kidscreen.
Speaking of Kidscreen, I’m working with the fabulous team organizing the conference to pull together a session on what winning in streaming looks like. We’re in the process of confirming an absolutely stacked panel and I’ll share some topline trends I’m seeing from the data. Join us in San Diego on Monday Feb 10th at 3pm.
How much stock should we put in Trending Top 10s?
Trending Top 10s refer to the rankings that are published on the Netflix platform, bespoke by country, on a daily basis. These are compiled by FlixPatrol, with points assigned to a series or film based on what position it sits in. This is with the intention to facilitate some sort of comparable analysis.
If you consider Trending Top 10s only on their statistical merit, they are by far the runt of the streaming measurement system. Not scientific, not quantifiable. There are also valid questions and concerns about how much Trending Top 10 rankings are influenced by the platforms who operate them. I once heard the nugget from Netflix that the Trending Top 10 ranking might not even show up for a user on the platform if it’s not a feature that individual engages with. Algo energy at its finest. That being said, I do see reason to believe that Netflix don’t over-game the system. Out-of-the-blue hits that they have with some degree of regularity, the biggest of which being Squid Game, wouldn’t have organically broken through if they were playing too hard with their own priorities (take it from me, I worked in Disney where corporate priority knot-tying was an art form).
Looking beyond the scientific, Trending Top 10s do have some other very positive aspects. They are hyper consistent, daily, and hyper immediate, hence we can look at 2024 right as the year closes down. Another plus is that the data is hyper local. We can look at results country by country, for many, many countries in the world. To illustrate by example, you won’t be surprised to learn that it’s not very common for global datasets to bother delivering Ireland-specific insights, but we have these with the Trending Top 10s. So although the measurability of these rankings is questionable, there are definitely merits when considering what these results say directionally.
Top Movies
“What do they say?” says you. “Stop rabbiting on about measurement merit and get to the content!” Ok! Calm down. Didn’t you get some time to unwind over the break? Let’s kick off with the top movies globally and what we see is an abundance of films licensed by Universal from their thoroughbred animation studios Illumination and DreamWorks. The footprint of Illumination movies is particularly notable. The day Universal decide to pull these licenses off Netflix is the day Netflix have a real problem.
Beyond global, Universal’s movies truly form the backbone of what works among the kids offering in the US.
The only Netflix Original to feature in the US or Global rankings is Leo, which had standout performance on the platform by other metrics. But performance for the most recent major Netflix Original animated movie, Spellbound, was nowhere near Leo, so the film is looking to be an anomaly, rather than a trend amongst Netflix Original animated movies. Again, I say, the day Universal decide to pull these licenses off Netflix is the day Netflix have a real problem.
Top TV Series
On the TV series front, both Peppa Pig and Gabby’s Dollhouse came in higher than CoComelon, which is a change from 2023, though if you add in CoComelon Lane, Gabby slips to #3. New shows Hot Wheels Let’s Race, Bad Dinosaurs, and Mermaid Magic are all showing great potential. Mermaid Magic launched in the second half of 2024 so I can’t wait to see more data on this.
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, spin-off of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, is also doing well.
Along with a noticeable softening of CoComelon, the other thing worth tracking is what YouTube IPs are rising to take its place. Bebefinn from Pinkfong has a strong footprint. As do Little Angel, The Children’s Kingdom and Lottie Dottie Chicken. Preschool content dominates overall, which aligns with what we see in the Netflix Kids Content Performance Reports.
Looking on a more granular level, country to country, many of the same hits abound, but with some local sparks and anomalies. The biggest curve ball for me in the UK (and Ireland) was Little Lunch. A one-series Australian mockumentary-style show from 2015 that hits at #34. Concept-wise, it’s along the same lines as Disney Channel’s As the Bell Rings (or referencing the true original for those who know, Quelli dell'intervallo) in that it’s kids at recess talking about what’s going down in school. It brings solid, Australian-level humour.
It’s this type of nugget that the Trending Top 10s can reveal. Older series finding a new audience on Netflix is nothing new. This has become a feature that has been lauded since the platform’s slam dunk with Cobra Kai, but no one has really been talking about how it manifests with kids content. It’s something we’re also tracking as part of the Netflix Kids Content Performance Reports, with some interesting examples building.
So there you have it. Stay tuned for more from me once the other datasets hit. I’ll also be covering Netflix earnings in a couple of weeks.