'Bridgerton' tops Netflix's first-ever list of most-watched shows

Netflix has lifted the lid on the closely-guarded secret of which of its shows and films are the most popular for the first time - with Bridgerton coming out on top.

The steamy period drama topped two different lists of the streaming service's best performing TV shows, with 82 million accounts streaming it within 28 days of its launch in December - nearly 40 per cent of Netflix’s 209 million subscribers.

Read more: Bridgerton producer says US has more jobs for actors of colour than UK

Up until Monday, some of the data had been kept private even from many of their showrunners and was described as a "big black box", but at the Code Conference in Los Angeles on Monday Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said: “We’re trying to be more transparent with talent, with the market."

However, the figures might not seem totally transparent, as confusingly there are top 10 TV and film lists for the number of accounts that selected a title in its first 28 days of release and streamed at least two minutes of it, as well as top 10s for the never-before released figures of hours spent viewing within that 28-day window.

Bridgerton, which starred Rege-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor in its first series, topped both the TV lists at 625 million viewing hours.

Other notable entries on the TV list for the newly-released viewing hours included Money Heist with the fourth season in second place at 619 million viewing hours and ninth place for its season three.

Stranger Things 3 was third and its second season was eighth, while The Witcher was in fourth spot.

Places five and six were taken by 13 Reasons Why season two and one respectively, You season two was seventh, and 10th place went to Ginny & Georgia.

Read more: The best things streaming on Netflix in September 2021

Over on the film list, Bird Box was in first place, followed by Extraction in second and The Irishman in third.

Viewers may be surprised to see hit royal drama The Crown absent from both lists, while Tiger King and The Queen's Gambit took places seven and eight on the top 10 list of number of accounts streaming at least two minutes but did not make it onto the highest number of hours watched list.

Watch: Bridgerton season 2 first look trailer