Netflix is the biggest streaming service in the world. Despite cutthroat competition from other streaming platforms in recent years, it still retains the largest market share across the globe, with over 84 million paid subscribers in the USA alone.
There are two ways for Netflix’s millions of users to access the service: through a web browser, or via the Netflix app.
But how do viewing habits differ across these two platforms? Do Netflix viewers who watch on the app behave differently to those who watch on a browser?
Thanks to data gathered from our clickstream in conjunction with in-app user behavior data from MFour, we can now shed light on the intriguing differences in viewer behavior between Netflix’s in-app and in-browser experiences.
For this article, we looked at
- Top show categories
- Top titles
- Visit frequency
- Session lengths
- Sessions by time of day
Note on the data: Datos clickstream and Mfour app data for the date range Nov 1, 2023 – Oct 30, 2024 for USA-based devices.
Top Netflix categories
As can be seen in the below table, the top 10 categories for both app and web users were largely the same, though in differing orders, with two on each list that don’t appear in the other (highlighted).
While the most popular category for web users was Drama, app users favored Children and Family. This suggests that if you’re a parent who gives your child a tablet or phone playing a TV show for a bit of peace and quiet, you’re far from alone!
The only category that is equally popular in both groups is Comedies, which takes the number 2 spot for both web and app users.
Top titles – what people were watching the most
The most popular titles for:
- Web users was Wednesday, watched by 10.94% of users
- App users was Young Sheldon, watched by 6.29% of users
Grey’s Anatomy and Bridgerton had similar popularity across both platforms, with a difference of less than 1% in viewership.
It’s notable that of the top 10 titles for web and app users, only 2 titles appear in both lists (highlighted). In addition, the top 10 titles for web users are exclusively series, while app users’ top 10 titles, though also dominated by series, include 3 feature films.
Kids’ animated movies appear in the top 10 for app users, whereas none are present in the web users’ top 10. This aligns with Children & Family being the most popular category for app users.
Frequency of Netflix sessions
For 9 of the 12 months that the data covers, the difference between web and app users in the average number of Netflix sessions per month is less than 1. Notable exceptions include May ’24 (-1.20), August ’24 (-1.05), and October ’24 (-1.32), where app users have significantly more sessions.
Netflix Session – Includes all activity on Netflix.com or Netflix app. After 2 hours 49 minutes with no activity on Netflix, the session is considered over. If the user navigates away from Netflix and is inactive for more than 30 minutes, the session is also considered over.
App users consistently recorded more sessions per month except in November 2023, where web users have a marginally higher average of +0.01 sessions.
A sharp decline in web sessions can be seen in May 2024, dropping to 5.42 from 6.05 in April. This lower level persists for the remainder of the period, staying below 6 sessions per month. A possible reason for this drop could be the summer vacation season, but we can see that numbers did not return to their pre-summer values, so there may be another reason.
Netflix session lengths
The average difference in session duration between web and app users is 3.82 minutes.
For most months (excluding May, June, and July) web users had longer sessions compared to app users. Once again we can see a drop starting in May.
Popular times of day to stream Netflix
For web users, the most popular time periods in which to start watching Netflix were the Day (12:00–17:59) and Evening (18:00–23:59), with minimal variation across weekdays (a difference of 0.58%).
For app users, however, the Evening (18:00–23:59) was the dominant time to start Netflix sessions, accounting for 34.28% of session starts on average.
Both platforms experienced a significant drop in viewership on Saturday evenings—22.43% for web users compared to an average of 48.06% on other days, and 9.13% for app users compared to an average of 38.47% on other days.
The most popular day to watch Netflix differed: Sunday was the most common for web users, with an average of 40.37%, while Monday led for app users at 31.68%.
% of Netflix Users that started a Netflix Session by Time of Day and Weekday = Number of Netflix Users started Netflix Session at certain Time of Day and Weekday / Number of Netflix Users in the panel
Summary & Takeaways
In the time period of this study, there were no dramatic differences between Netflix web and app usage. However, web and app users did track some differences in behavior.
The main observations from the data are:
- Children’s and cartoon shows have a higher position on the top 10 list for app users than for web.
- Netflix sessions in the Afternoon and Evening time slots were most popular across both web and app.
- Web users logged the most activity on Mondays, while for app users Monday was the most active day.
- Tuesday was the day with least activity amongst web users, while Saturday was the quietest day for app users.
- With the drop in frequency and length of sessions for web users in May, there is some seasonality in user behavior which is not seen on app.
For more on studying in-app vs browser data, check out our report on Amazon user behavior in-app vs web.
Notes on data presentation/methodology
The data displayed in this report has been provided by Datos, A Semrush Company, and MFour. The analysis is based on Datos’ & MFour’s US panel, representing a diverse and statistically significant sample of users, and covers the months of Nov 1, 2023 – Oct 30, 2024. For further information please visit Datos’s website and its Privacy Policy.
