‘The Sea Beast’ Is Netflix’s Most Viewed Original Animated Film

Netflix reports that its biggest original animated feature to date is The Sea Beast.

In its third-quarter earnings report, the streamer revealed that the Chris Williams-directed film was viewed for 165 million hours. (Those hours are from the film’s first 28 days of release, which is Netflix’s de facto viewership measurement period.)

It’s unclear whether Netflix considers ‘original’ animated features to be those films in which it takes part in development, such as Klaus, Back to the Outback, Over the Moon, and The Willoughbys, or if it also includes original releases that it picks up after completion, such as I Lost My Body and The Mitchells vs. the Machines.

It’s also unclear how The Sea Beast performed against The Mitchells vs. the Machines, which Netflix touted as its most-viewed animation release of 2021. Last year Netflix used a different ratings methodology than viewing hours; instead it calculated the number of viewing households.

Netflix also reported viewing hours for some of its non-animation film successes, which helps give an idea of how animation fares in the overall picture: The Gray Man (254 million hours viewed), Purple Hearts (229 million hours), the Danish film Loving Adults (67 million hours), and the Korean film Carter (65 million hours).

The streamer did not report any viewing figures for animated series, owing to the fact that it hasn’t had any breakout animated series hits in 2022. It did offer viewing hours for some of its live-action hits though: Stranger Things season 4 (1.35 billion hours), Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (824 million hours), and The Sandman (351 million hours).

Netflix Animation’s original feature animation pipeline is picking up considerably in the second half of 2022. The streamer will release four new features in the coming months: Wendell & Wild, My Father’s Dragon, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, and Scrooge: A Christmas Carol.