Netflix has a huge new number one movie and there's a sequel coming

Netflix has a new hit on its hands, and this one is no surprise. Extraction 2 is the most-watched movie or TV show of the moment according to both Flix Patrol and Netflix’s own statistics site.

The Chris Hemsworth vehicle, which also includes Chris Hemsworth shooting at vehicles with some great big guns, is the most popular Netflix movie across almost the entire world.

Flix Patrol has it placed at the number one spot across all territories bar Turkey and Cyprus, where Illegal Lives reigns supreme, Japan and Poland.

In another impressive sign of quite how powerful Extraction has become, despite never having had a cinema release, the original film is also number two on the charts.

Netflix has, unsurprisingly, given Extraction 2 a pretty clean run at this one. The first Extraction went on to be the most-watched film on Netflix to date after its release in April 2020. And there are no other big new releases out this week on the streamer.

Extraction 2 has racked-up 88 million hours viewed from June 12 to June 18 according to Netflix’s figures, the original Extraction a tasty 18.8 million.

It’s the biggest first-week movie launch this year on Netflix, even even pipped the earliest 82-million hour figure of Glass Onion late last year.

There’s more news too. Extraction 3 is on the way, as confirmed at the Tudum show the other day. Loveable Aussie Chris Hemsworth will carry on the role of Tyler Rake. The director of the first two movies Sam Hargrave is to return too.

What is Netflix’s most popular movie?

However, a change in Netflix methodology recently has made us reconsider some claims we’ve made about the original Extraction recently. It was the most popular Netflix movie back in 2020, then the second.

This was based on the amount of hours viewed in the first 28 days. Netflix’s Tudum stats site has since switched over to the first 91 days of release, and that changes things a bit.

Extraction is now number eight in the list of most popular Netflix movies ever, with 266 million hours viewed. That’s a way below the top pick, Red Notice, which totalled 454 million hours in the first 91 days.

But could Extraction 2 knock the original off the number eight spot? We’ll be keeping a keen eye on the film’s second-week stats to get a clearer idea of that. No jump in figures? No dice.

In another change to Netflix’s stats, figures are now broken down into “views” as well as “hours viewed”. This offers a much fairer view if you’re looking to compare a TV show to a movie.

Netflix’s figures suggest Extraction was watched 135 million times in its first 91 days, close to the 140 million of Stranger Things Season 4. Netflix doesn’t go all that scientific on its “view” count, though, simply calculating by dividing the hours watched by the total hours of content in a show or movie.

It assumes everyone who watched stayed for the whole thing. But, hey, we love numbers.