How much can we binge watch on Netflix?

How Much Can We Binge Watch On Netflix? Photo by Mollie Sivaram on Unsplash

 

The biggest question when it comes to watching Television shows is that 'How Much Can We Binge Watch On Netflix?' This question applies not only to Netflix but also its competitors like Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Hulu, Apple Tv+, Disney+, etc.

It is a question that is only getting more demanding as we move to a future of streaming. But before that, what is Binge watching? Well traditional definition says that binge-watching is the act of watching 3 or more episodes of a show in one sitting. In this modern era of OTT platforms like Netflix, the way in which we consume content has changed drastically. Back in the old days, the only way to watch a show was on TV during a fixed time and the only way to watch movies were theaters, DVD, TV, VHS,etc. For most shows, episodes used to air once every week and there was a lot of waiting before a new episode.

Now in this era of streaming, the way content is produced has changed drastically. Shows produced by platforms like Netflix and Amazon are no longer released weekly. Once all the episodes of a show are done, these OTT platforms release the entire show with all its episodes in their entirety on a selected date with the tag line 'Now Streaming'. If people want, they can stream/watch the entire show and its season in a single day if they want to. No longer do people have to wait weekly for an episode since all episodes are released in a single day and people can watch whenever they want and however they want and on any device be it a Laptop, Desktop, Mobile, Tablet, Smart TV,etc. The same with movies as they are often released on OTT Platforms within a few months after their theatrical run and that too on 4K resolution(if we pay the 4K subscription).

Photo by Ayiman Mohanty on Unsplash

 

In fact during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, the demand for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO MAX reached an all time high. Every person who were stuck in their homes got an unlimited source of content through these OTT platforms and they did not even need to watch cable TV or buy a DVD or a BluRay Disc, or go the theaters(obviously they were shut),etc as all the content in the world was available on these streaming services. In fact during this pandemic, we saw the emergence of a new trend of new movies releasing simultaneously in theaters and streaming platforms which is something that has never happened before on a consistent level. Popular movies like Wonder Woman 1984, Godzilla vs Kong, Mortal Combat, Black Widow, The Suicide Squad, Zack Snyder's Justice League, Jungle Cruise,etc released simultaneously on Streaming Platforms and Theaters.

Top 1% of the Content On Netflix.

 

Which brings us back to, HOW MUCH CAN WE BINGE WATCH ON NETFLIX?

The Answer - Well according to this Fox Business July 2020 Article, the data from the from a streaming search engine 'ReelGood' stated that Netflix had 3781 movies and 1940 TV Shows. Well at the time of writing this blog, its August 2021 so I would assume that Netflix at this point should easily have over 5000 movies and over 2000 TV shows without a doubt and that is  way too much and unending. And this is just Netflix's numbers  and we have not even factored the other streaming services, a combined of which should easily make over 50000  movies and 25000 TV Shows(just a rough assumption and probably is very wrong). Now talking about Netflix, If Netflix has 5000 movies with each movie being roughly 2 hours long then there are 10000 hours of movies that can be watched and if it has 2000 TV Shows with around 10 episodes each with each episode being roughly 1 hour long and assuming that each show has at least 2 Seasons, we get a rough watch time of 40000 hours for TV Shows and hence a total of 50000 hours of Content. Just for the sake of poor accuracy, I will add 10000 more hours making it 60000 hours which when converted to years we get around 7 years.

And hence the Answer to the question How Much can We Binge On Netflix is that we can binge roughly 7 years of content if we spend everyday and every hour of lives just binging. No sleep, No Bath, No Work, No Breakfast, No Lunch, No Dinner, No going out, No taking a poop. Just keep watching Netflix for 7 years consistently with no breaks and you will almost be done with everything on Netflix although I do not recommend it.

Ok jokes aside, yeah those 7 years are just Netflix and I have not even factored in other Streaming platforms so actually, We can binge watch on Netflix as much as we want and we will never at all run out of content ever and we can never watch everything out there. Even if we watch 7 hours daily for 7 years, we can only watch 2 years worth of content. So we should just choose what we want to watch and what we like and just make sure it does not takeover our life. Me personally am not a crazy binge-watcher. Once every week I may watch 3-4 episodes of a show in a single day and very rarely do I watch a complete Season of a show in 1 sitting and by rarely I mean once every 8 months. My record binge was when I watched two seasons of Mirzapur in 2 days and then on the third day, I felt like a zombie. My best TV Show watching experience was When I watched Chernobyl weekly.

So, How Much Can We Bing Watch On Netflix? ........Well an entire lifetime of content.