Exploring Netflix’s Huge YouTube Footprint

Netflix’s social media footprint as a whole is gigantic. Like most streamers, they operate multiple accounts but unlike other streamers, Netflix’s YouTube footprint is growing around the world. Below, we’ll take a look at some of the biggest guns in Netflix’s YouTube arsenal.

How many combined views does Netflix’s channels have? We tried putting together an accurate number as of July 2020 and it’s colossal.

Netflix has accumulated a total of close to ten billion views on YouTube. As of July 8th, their view count sat at 9,859,017,949.

On the subscriber side, the number is less impressive with a combined 54 million subs.

How does it compare to other entertainment companies? Pretty well, although against huge media empires, they fare a little less well.

Disney is undoubtedly the king right now. Their channel count is absolutely huge and the 20 main channels we found had a combined view count of 20 billion. They’ve, of course, got huge brands such as Marvel and Star Wars which both have billions of views combined.

Even against HBO Max Netflix technically falls behind when you include their sub-brands included on the platform such as AdultSwim (4.61M subs – 2.4B views) and Last Week Tonight (8.2M subs – 2.5B views).

Netflix does, however, beat out Prime Video, Quibi and Hulu (including FX Networks) at least from what we’ve found in our research.

Netflix’s YouTube Channel Categories

It’s the channels that don’t carry close to any Netflix branding which is the most surprising though. The Swoon is the biggest example of this. A channel closing in on 1 million subscribers and a combined 359 million view count. Netflix even went as far as to register The Swoon as a trademark recently suggesting Netflix will continue leaning in on its smaller brands to promote segments of its content

Netflix’s YouTube output is put into four categories.

• Regional accounts such as the main Netflix account serving the US.
• We then have individual show channels (there’s not too many of these) including those for Stranger Things and Patriot Act for instance.
• Then you have specific content targeting genres of content such as The Swoon for Korean titles and Netflix JR for children’s content
• Finally, you have more business-related channels such as Investor Relations and We are Netflix.

Another shift for Netflix in recent years has been uploading full episodes and documentaries on Netflix. It’s done so on several occasion including recently during the coronavirus crisis and the black lives matter movement.

That’s why you’re able to watch the majority of Netflix’s Our Planet docu-series on YouTube without ever having to navigate towards Netflix dot com.

It’s also leaned into its talents channels too. For example, Gabriel Iglesias’s YouTube channel is currently host to the pilot episode of his sitcom series.

Netflix has also released exclusive content to YouTube too with perhaps the biggest example being Dave Chappelle’s 8:46 special.

YouTube Channel Stats Breakdown

Here’s every Netflix channel on YouTube listed by the total number of views.

Note: correct as of July 8th, 2020.

Thanks to SocialBlade, we also know that Netflix is currently averaging around 2.5M views a day on its main channel. It also projects that Netflix’s main account could hit 132M subs by 2025 and 24B views in 2025.

There’s a great article about Netflix’s shift to YouTube from Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw with some interesting snippets. Including:

• Netflix’s traffic increased whenever YouTube would experience downtime
• Netflix’s previous aversion to posting on YouTube but with new competitors on the market, it’s leaning into YouTube as a friend rather than treating it as an enemy.

We’ll redo this post further down the line to see any further progress made by Netflix.