Ghost Mike's Ponyfic Review Monday Musings #101

Just before Christmas, something interesting came up. Completely breaking major company convention, Netflix has released viewing hours for the period of January-June 2023 for every title that had at least 50,000 watch hours. Which is over 18,000 titles. Several of which are a property to do with colourful pastel magical equines.

This is unprecedented. Some theories are floating around that the conditions met in the resolution to the actors-and-writers strike has something to do with it, as previously companies did everything they could to keep those stats under wrap, so actors couldn’t claim royalties. That still wouldn’t explain why Netflix is making these public – they only need to show them to the people who make the shows – but they have their stated reasons in the press release (the excel-format report is linked there – if you lack software to view it after downloading, uploading it to GDrive will do the trick). Whether they’re worth believing is another story, but with the state of the streaming industry, who’s to say. Cartoon Brew’s article on the top ten animated shows and films certainly paints a distressing picture, with only one of each being an original rather than an acquisition, though with how little promotion they give most of their shows, it’s hardly a surprise that other companies’ properties that people are already aware of would grab far more attention.

There’s a lot interesting that can be gleaned from it (the Wednesday series really is as big a hit as they say, charting 4^th with 507.7 million hours despite being released in 2022), and if you’re even the tiny bit interested in anime, this Anime News Network article breakdown down the trends of that genre is most enlightening. But given the fandom we’re all in, why not see what pony stats it gives us? The list separates seasons (or chapters, for MYM into different rows), which is handy. And after looking through it, I think it tells us quite a lot about Hasbro’s decisions with the brand as of late, what has been done with MLP (both current and legacy), and how this relates to it being a toy brand. Given most of this watching is likely by the actual target audience of children/parents, and not us adult fans. Each season/film notes whether it is available worldwide or not (at the end of the six-month period), the final placement, the cumulative watch hours, and the total runtime of the film/episodes (which, yeah, matters when comparing these to each other)!

1. Friendship is Magic Season 1 (572 minutes, worldwide): 36m hours, 499^th
2. A New Generation (90 minutes, worldwide): 15.4m hours, 1389^th
3. Make Your Mark Chapter 2 (176 minutes, worldwide): 9.7m hours, 2112^nd
4. Make Your Mark Chapter 4 (176 minutes, worldwide): 8.4m hours, 2389^th, NEW (June 6^th)
5. Friendship is Magic Season 2 (572 minutes, not worldwide): 8.1m hours, 2469^th
6. Friendship is Magic Season 4 (572 minutes, not worldwide): 6.1m hours, 3080^th
7. Tell Your Tale Season 1 (105 minutes, worldwide): 5.1m hours, 3523^rd, NEW TO NETFLIX (March 27^th)
8. Make Your Mark Chapter 3 (44 minutes, worldwide): 3.9m hours, 4165^th
9. A New Generation Sing-Along (90 minutes, worldwide): 3.8m hours, 4236^th
10. Make Your Mark Chapter 1 (44 minutes, worldwide): 3.8m hours, 4237^th
11. Friendship is Magic Season 3 (286 minutes, not worldwide): 3.4m hours, 4528^th
12. 2017 Movie (99 minutes, not worldwide): 2.3m hours, 5571^st, RETURNING (June 19^th)
13. Friendship is Magic Season 5 (572 minutes, not worldwide): 1.0m hours, 7998^th
14. Friendship is Magic Season 6 (572 minutes, not worldwide): 200K hours, 13549^th

The important thing to remember with worldwide and not-worldwide is: everything G5 is worldwide, since it’s made for Netflix. FiM Season One is sticking around for now: Seasons Two-Five left non-US territories at the end of January, even though Two-Four are still in the States for now, while Season Six left the States (the only place it was still in) around January and Five sometime between January and June (I vividly remember having to shift my Season Five rewatch elsewhere after January 2022 when all seasons but the first left Netflix UK/Ireland…). Lastly, the 2017 movie returned to Netflix in the States on June 19^th, meaning its stats here are from just 12 days. Reportedly, only about 28% of Netflix subscribers are in the States, so that’s how big a benefit FiM’s first season gets to the rest.

Normally, trying to compare stats between legacy and new content is hard given how front-loaded to release watching is for most people these days. But not only is that less true for kids’ content, but only one of the fourteen items above was truly new during the period, Chapter Four of Make Your Mark. Meaning everything else is legacy, making comparisons quite easy!

Before that, though, I’ve gone through and divided the watch hours by the runtime of the content to give an approximation of how popular everything is relative to everything else. Let’s call it proportional views (Netflix just calls it “views” when using it as a metric in their internal reports). Only an approximation, of course: it’s easier to keep people watching for one film than even a 8-episode chapter of three hours of content. This is likely why Season Three of FiM is about 11.48% better than Season Four, due to viewers trailing off more over the course of twenty-six episodes relative to thirteen. 

1. A New Generation (90 minutes, worldwide): 15.4m hours, 10.27m proportional views
2. Make Your Mark Chapter 3 (44 minutes, worldwide): 3.9m hours, 5.31m proportional views
3. Make Your Mark Chapter 1 (44 minutes, worldwide): 3.8m hours, 5.18m proportional views
4. Friendship is Magic Season 1 (572 minutes, worldwide): 36m hours, 3.78m proportional views
5. Make Your Mark Chapter 2 (176 minutes, worldwide): 9.7m hours, 3.31m proportional views
6. Tell Your Tale Season 1 (105 minutes, worldwide): 5.1m hours, 2.91m proportional views, NEW TO NETFLIX (March 27^th)
7. Make Your Mark Chapter 4 (176 minutes, worldwide): 8.4m hours, 2.86m proportional views, NEW (June 6^th)
8. A New Generation Sing-Along (90 minutes, worldwide): 3.8m hours, 2.53m proportional views
9. 2017 Movie (99 minutes, not worldwide): 2.3m hours, 1.39m proportional views, RETURNING (June 19^th)
10. Friendship is Magic Season 2 (572 minutes, not worldwide): 8.1m hours, 850K proportional views
11. Friendship is Magic Season 3 (286 minutes, not worldwide): 3.4m hours, 713K proportional views
12. Friendship is Magic Season 4 (572 minutes, not worldwide): 6.1m hours, 640K proportional views
13. Friendship is Magic Season 5 (572 minutes, not worldwide): 1.0m hours, 105K proportional views
14. Friendship is Magic Season 6 (572 minutes, not worldwide): 200K hours, 201K proportional views

Non-worldwide ones are unfair to compare to the rest, though Seasons Two-Four of FiM do paint a reasonably accurate picture of viewer retention from season to season for a normal “quality” show, at least. Season Three dips 16.11% from Two, while Four dips only 10.24%. Which can likely be chalked up largely to only half the episodes to lose people during (even if S3 is typically considered the weakest of the five five!), and drop off usually being heaviest early on, when you get people browsing casually and clicking on the first episode out of curiosity.

Also, for being a movie both Hasbro and the public have buried and forgotten about, and for only being back for twelve days during this period, AND only in the States, the 2017 movie did really well. I’m very curious to see how it will do in the next report, when it has the whole six months to compete. Hopefully that doesn’t take six months to become available…!

Let’s try the results with the non-worldwide ones shifted out:

1. A New Generation (90 minutes, worldwide): 15.4m hours, 10.27m proportional views
2. Make Your Mark Chapter 3 (44 minutes, worldwide): 3.9m hours, 5.31m proportional views
3. Make Your Mark Chapter 1 (44 minutes, worldwide): 3.8m hours, 5.18m proportional views
4. Friendship is Magic Season 1 (572 minutes, worldwide): 36m hours, 3.78m proportional views
5. Make Your Mark Chapter 2 (176 minutes, worldwide): 9.7m hours, 3.31m proportional views
6. Tell Your Tale Season 1 (105 minutes, worldwide): 5.1m hours, 2.91m proportional views, NEW TO NETFLIX (March 27^th)
7. Make Your Mark Chapter 4 (176 minutes, worldwide): 8.4m hours, 2.86m proportional views, NEW (June 6^th)
8. A New Generation Sing-Along (90 minutes, worldwide): 3.8m hours, 2.53m proportional views

Here we see a few problems in trying to compare. A Season or Chapter with only one episode will do far proportionally better, owing to being able to entice viewers into “just one more” off the prior one, and by that token, the G5 specials, Chapters 1 & 3, look much more impressive. It also makes it harder to truly judge the drop-off from Chapter to Chapter, as we go from 44 minutes to nearly three hours and back. That said, Chapter 4 being quite close to 2 despite only having a month to work with does show that even for kids’ shows, that initial window does a lot of work.

Honestly, probably the key fact here lies in Tell Your Tale. The first twenty shorts were issued in four-episode groups, as five “episodes”. Yet despite being content also available on, and largely promoted on, YouTube, they’ve done nearly as well as Chapter 2 (a good comparison, being a similar age in terms of first release). Obviously being shorter helps it in proportional views. But this is nonetheless rather telling that even an reissue of the webseries, dropped with virtually no fanfare, and only for three of the six months here, outperformed the CG show on its home turf from many points of view.

Then there’s the one FiM Season in there. Which, despite having almost three times the length as MYM Chapter 2, not being actively prompted, and being on an old toy brand the target audience is ostensibly not interested, is outperforming the current generation easily. No doubt the constant compilation uploads on YouTube help for exposure to the wee ones, but that the first season of FiM still cracked the top 500 in watch hours for all of Netflix during this period is, honestly, bloody impressive.

Oh, and the G5 film blows everything out of the water naturally. Being quality, known to be something the kids want to rewatch while they don’t with the series (something like half the IMDb reviews of MYM say words to this effect), getting suggested alongside MYM, the works. Obviously you can’t directly compare films to tv shows – the former have far more longevity on streaming individually, as well they should. But it does speak for itself, no?

I am very curious, come Summer, to see the Netflix report for the back half, especially for how much TYT will outperform MYM now it’s there from the start and thus better “justify” Hasbro’s decision to switch to the much cheaper show for the generation to die without dignity. Among other things. For now, though, let’s look at five fics irrespective of their view counts.

This Week’s Spectral Stories:
Sticking Points by The Hat Man
Far From The Tree by Aquaman
Interview with a Batpony by Gulheru
Tracks in the Sand by DwarvishPony
A Gift from the Heart by Mindscape

Weekly Word Count: 32,847 Words

Archive of Reviews

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Sticking Points by The Hat Man

Genre: Comedy
Starlight, Twilight, Mane 6
1,227 Words
August 2019

Reread

An ordinary break in the staff lounge is cut short for Starlight Glimmer when Twilight calls an emergency faculty meeting. “The stars are GONE!” she declares. Instantly, Starlight deduces that this can either be an impending disaster, or a case of Twilighting. And she knows which she’d put her money on.

I really can’t say much more than that (curse of comic twist vignette stories!), but the fun doesn’t end at the reveal, a common pitfall for many such stories. Which would be a problem, as that’s only 600 words, but after it comes out and Twilight’s friends are unamused, we get Starlight running through reasons why it’s nothing, which Twilight rebuffs in a frantic panic, until a casual joke suggestion by Starlight is taken seriously.

Within the wheelhouse of fics like this, the lines are good and the tonal balance solid enough to sell the ridiculousness. Little more than a diversion, but it’s a diversion that goes down well; I can see how it won a “Quills and Sofas” speed-writing competition.

Rating: Decent

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Far From The Tree by Aquaman

Genre: Romance/Slice of Life
Applejack, Apple Bloom, OC
10,457 Words
June 2014

Reread

Listened to via Scribbler's reading

Applejack has had a very productive day of work on the orchard. She may well have set a personal best for her chunk of the harvest! As she hangs up her (figurative) horseshoes in the house, she takes note Apple Bloom is home. When she discovers that Apple Bloom isn’t alone, but snuck a colt into the house, it not only shocks her, but changes how she sees her little sister. Namely, that she isn’t so little anymore.

A little more spoiler-y than the fic’s description, granted, but sod it, the prompt is cited in the description, the fic’s nearly ten years old, and that’s revealed very early on anyway. Besides, it gives way to the fic’s masterstroke, which is that, after Applejack privately calms herself, she waits for her sister, unknowing her secret is out, to descend for a talk. Only to get the colt instead, so that’s who she ends up talking to about this. Aquaman did quite a bit of work to flesh him out, define his personality in a manner that shows how he and Apple Bloom fell for each other, and gradually endears him to Applejack. By the end of it, you barely notice or care that Apple Bloom is barely a character in the fic at all. The resulting explorations of the two leads’ emotions, without the baggage of the sister relationship except in AJ’s head, thus feels fresher. That AJ and the colt are having cider while talking, and this subtly lowers their inhibitions, does make AJ’s relative lack of Mama Bear tendencies she considered earlier feel more natural.

Even when there is dialogue, the fic leans towards thoughts and description, but keeps the pacing well despite how small and domestic the scope is. It could do with paragraph-breaking a fair bit more, as the story leans rather heavily on chunky paragraphs, though it’s only a deal breaker in the rather redundant opening of Applejack’s good day of work, with something like twice the detail we need. Good thing I always scan-read a fic if I listen to it, otherwise I’d have missed this!

In any case, it’s a rather nuanced and effective approach to the “parent/elder sibling discovers their child/younger sibling’s first relationship”, and besides getting a little indulgent at times, I really appreciated it, before and again now.

Rating: Pretty Good

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Interview with a Batpony by Gulheru

Genre: Slice of Life
Twilight, OC, Bat Pony
7,593 Words
October 2013

Reread

Listened to via Scribbler's reading

Twilight has a most rare opportunity on her hooves. A batpony has moved to Ponyville, and is quite receptive to her proposal for an interview. This is her chance to fill in the many, many gaps in Equestrian knowledge about their kind, and clear up so many misconceptions regarding their species, culture, and society. With a tape recorder to hoof, and a clear schedule and empty library for her and the stallion in question, Midnight Wind, she’s all set.

While you could argue it’s surprising it took me over two years to cover a batpony story here, on another mitt, it isn’t really. Things barely present in the show yet extrapolated to kingdom come by the fandom rarely tend to charm me when they aren’t changelings (and even that is more moderate than most). See most background ponies. And batponies in particular, as I gather, tend to invite a lot of garbage, edgy fics, regardless of what direction they take. Not that I’ve read more than a few, but it’s enough, so even if I don’t oppose them to the level of the Present Perfects of the world, it’s an uphill battle. Especially with this fic making no pretensions to being anything but a loredump exercise, basically in the form of a radio play, with just dialogue and sound effects. I like worldbuilding, but usually with at least some story.

Having said that, there was some alchemy at work here, for it worked quite well, for two key reasons. One is the pleasant rapport between Twilight and Midnight: she has her adorably awkward interest in the subject yet also with just enough balance and respect to keep herself measured enough. Midnight himself is measured yet not above cracking some wit and banter. It certainly couldn’t sustain a whole story alone, but it does manage to somewhat get around how there is only a handful of the bones of narrative escalation from the format. 

Of course, the key is the worldbuilding, and at least for me, it managed to be short and sweet, using a certain rhythm to keep bouncing between topics without overt lingering. Which allowed the choices to just entertain for themselves, and the hit rate of original ideas (well, for my limited sample of batpony stories) that are clever and feel right is unusually high. The standout is their connection to Luna, but a deconstruction of how some of the legends around them came to be build up also leaps out, as does their diet, upbringing and the etymology of key words for their language and how they has been interpreted by Equestrians, all also stick out.

It’s that rare case of a worldbuild fic I liked that, frankly, I don’t necessarily want to see more out of (this would be so even if the long sequel wasn’t 900K+ and still ongoing after almost ten years; I will revisit the second 12K interview fic between that and here, mind). Largely because, well, it’s still batponies, and while the concepts are different and varied enough to work here, they would put me off at any longer a length. Still, as a worldbuilding exploration with no pretensions to anything else, it works. Lore aficionados should adore it.

Rating: Pretty Good

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Tracks in the Sand by DwarvishPony

Genre: Drama (Alternate Universe)
Pinkie (EqG), Gummy, Sunset
9,590 Words
November 2017

Reread

When the known world is an endless wasteland plagued by constant sandstorms, with everyone eking out a survival via trading what they can find, survival comes first. So scavengers of the ruins have the most to gain and to risk, as they never know what they might find. For one teenage girl, she’s about to find something she never would have expected – another human holed up in a former train station, wanting to study all she can about something called ‘magic’.

It’s frankly amazing how this story gets away with so many unanswered details about this world. Not just how this post-apocalypse EqG AU came to be and when, but even much of anything about the societies of humans elsewhere. No, this pretty much sticks to Pinkie, Sunset and this train station. there isn’t even a mention of the usual corrupt bandits that pillage by force in the vein of Mad Max or Waterworld. Or Fallout, for the more apt comparison in this fandom.

And yet, not only does none of that distract, we still get a greatly vivid picture. Of the setting, which is a character in and of itself, but primarily of Pinkie. She’s totally her bubbly, optimistic self, but also affected heavily by living in a world that barely knows what civilization is, to the point that the best possibility can see is this same world, but with a friend. Her perspective colours what she perceives, such that even Sunset’s struggle to get back to Equestria is more plot window dressing then the actual focus.

Character and relationship growth abound as Pinkie brings this reclusive – but not violent – Sunset out of her shell. Drama is never forsaken, and Pinkie’s delusions are never far away either, especially by the end. This ends up feeling totally earned and not at all standard even if the ingredients might well be: the balancing act between the bleakness and Pinkie’s sincerity form a wonderful melting pot that makes the tragic elements all the stronger, and the undying hope not a lip service. Even as a mental breakdown always feels on the cards.

Very impressive, all round, and I’d be saying that even if it were purely a FiM story and not fighting (and winning!) against my EqG distaste. As long as one doesn’t mind some rather blunt tragedy (but not unrelentingly so), or a distilled focus in the world for a small and intimate character study, this is a hefty recommendation.

Rating: Really Good

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A Gift from the Heart by Mindscape

Genre: Slice of Life
Fluttershy, Discord
4,170 Words
December 2020

Reread

Fluttershy’s eagerness at the upcoming Hearth’s Warming with her friends and animals is put to paid a bit when Discord shows up, being all boisterous. When she soon learns that he’s doing what he understands the holidays to be about from observation, she tries to help him understand what they’re actually about, and that it’s the meaning and intent behind the gift that matters, less the ease with which it’s made. Or magicked into existence. Something Discord has quite a bit of trouble processing.

Fluttershy fics will always have Discord be rather less chaotic than when he’s with any other pony, and Jinglemas fics will of course bring even more fuzzies in place of comedies. But even by those standards, this Discord is remarkably sedate and introspective: after the opening few gags of light animal chaos, he slips into quiet introspection and doesn’t really leave there all fic. It’s a welcome end point for him, but without a little more liveliness along the way, or even just a few lines of exposition of past events this might have built off of, it can’t help but feel too sudden to be fully authentic.

Otherwise, the fic is adequate but clumsy in it’s delivery, with recap of events between scenes (all the present-tense parts take place at Fluttershy’s cottage) especially falling victim to uncertain voice and caught between Fluttershy and a generic outline. It’s not a huge thing, but it contributes to a fic that doesn’t feel more than the concept and endpoint.

Said endpoint is solid and appreciated, so the fic isn’t a waste or anything. But it’s too muddled and diluted to linger to any notable degree.

Rating: Passable

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Spooky Summary of Scores:
Excellent: 0
Really Good: 1
Pretty Good: 2
Decent: 1
Passable: 1
Weak: 0
Bad: 0

Comments

[PaulAsaran]

I need to read Tracks in the Sand again, because I can't remember the details. Yet I seem to recall (and even brought up in my review back in 2020) there being a secretive little twist about the final chapter. It's like, if you read it surface level you get one kind of ending, but if you read between the lines you get the complete opposite. It struck me as a brilliant way to allow the reader to pick the conclusion they preferred, and it truly impressed me – and that after all the other solid elements that make up the story.

[Ghost Mike]

5769007
Twist endings like that are always a tricky fiddle to discuss in reviews, alas! But you're right, it has not just multiple layers, but multiple readings too. Great cherry on top of a great story for sure.

You know, with how (relatively) often you raise "I need to read x again" whenever I review a fic you really dug, I hope you actually find time in your schedule every now and then for a reread of fics that really stuck with you. Because it does sound like something you positively want, my friend. I recall you mentioning rereading The Silver Standard in one blog (last year, I want to say…?), but that's all that springs to mind right now. Hopefully that wasn't isolated, even if it was 296K of gold.

[PaulAsaran]

5769018
I have, in fact, been considering doing a review blog centered specifically around re-reading old favorites. Haven't gotten around to scheduling one yet, but the thought's been on the mind.

I have indeed re-read some long stories, such as The Silver Standard and Sucker for a Cute Face, but never to review because my schedule's already full enough. On the other hand, I recently realized that I am very far ahead in my reading right now (to the tune of nine weeks). If I got far enough ahead, I might schedule another "All Long Stories" blog like I did back in January 2020 with a focus on re-reads. That would be very hard to schedule this year owing too how cramped the latter half of my 2024 schedule is, but if I continue at the rate I've been going maybe I can pull it off in early 2025.

[Rune Soldier Dan]

The stats are interesting, though ultimately unsurprising. There are a lot of reasons G4 reigns supreme, but I honestly think the decision to make MYM Netflix exclusive will go down as the dumbest god damn thing you can do to a brand.

[Ghost Mike]

5769024
Ah, I remember that blog well. Not in a contemporary sense, I wasn't yet reading your blogs on the weekly, but despite it being a purely-longfic blog, I've actually read three of the stories therein, and two others remain on my radar as ones I might be interested in. And though I don't always have anything to say, I like seeing what you make of longfics I never read myself, so that's good too.

I didn't just mean reread of longfics, of course. That was just a convenient example to hand. Though given your preference for them, and how, when they're good, they do tend to linger in the mind more easily, it makes total sense. So whether such a future blog is longfics only or a mixture, I'll look forward to it.

Possibly, in a few years time when there's substantial choice available, I might do such a thing myself. We'll see.

[Ghost Mike]

5769028
Among the (many) interesting nuggets in the Anime on Netflix article I linked, is that, to an even greater degree that acquired/loaned vs original western animation, anime is overwhelmingly just a distribution thing for them, with only a handful of "Netflix Originals" per year. Netflix is great for animated properties reaching a wider audience after initial release, but as the debut, exclusive platform? And for a toy commercial brand that's dependant on selling to kids right here and now? Very risky. That they only actively promote a small handful and let the rest die makes it a death knoll for most.

Heck, TYT's solid-ish performance there is probably due almost solely to young kids just watching the same shorts they already watch on YouTube, being honest. Just whenever the parents stick them down to zombie at, it's all the same.

[PresentPerfect]

a bunch of good stuff in this one! :O

so, how would you rank yourself on the Present Perfect Scale of Hating Batponies? XD

[Ghost Mike]

5769059

a bunch of good stuff in this one! :O

Yeah, the start of this year hasn't been good for the ratings! No Excellent and only two Really Goods so far. I think a rough patch towards the end of last year had me rereading a low simpler-to-review low hanging fruit, and we're seeing the brunt of that here and now (39 of the 45 fics thus far this year have been rereads). It'll pass soon. But one Really Good and two Pretty Goods ain't bad, my friend!

so, how would you rank yourself on the Present Perfect Scale of Hating Batponies? XD

It's probably pretty obvious by now, but while I am largely indifferent to most big fandom-only crazes, meaning Derpy has to work as hard for my attention as anyone, and, massive endorsements excepted, I'm largely only interested in anything drastically different from convention where Lyra, Bon Bon, Octavia or Vinyl are concerned (especially if shipping is involved), that tends to go the other way too. I may be intellectually massively put off by bat ponies, but nothing about them stirs the kind of impassioned hate you feel. It's not too different from how I fully agree something like Sunny Skies All Day Long is just a fandom curio massively improved on by countless successors, but you actively hate how bland and does-nothing-beyond-the-hook-of-the-concept it is.

That said, on a scale of 0 (as open as anything else) to 10 (Present Perfect Wants To Atomise It Right Now), I'd probably be a… 6…? Excepting this story's 12K sequel, I'd be lucky to read one bat pony story a year, with how much they invite the kind of edgy junk we associate bad teenage-written fanfic with. And/or long gritty novels.

[Loganberry]

The only one here I've read is Far from the Tree, and as I think we noted before the wordiness early on bothered me a little less than it did you. We didn't differ much in our overall feelings, just that I'd have probably given "Really Good" on your scale. Of the other fics, the EqG one looks particularly interesting, and though I'm not generally as unenticed by EqG stuff as you are it's not usually my favourite.

Batponies aren't especially appealing to me, but I don't near-automatically go, "Begone!" to them the way PP does. Though if they call them "thestrals" that doesn't tend to help...

I did read all the Netflix stuff, but mostly skimming it. Interesting that they published the data at all, though. I wonder whether any other platforms will feel pushed to do the same now?

[Ghost Mike]

5769153

I did read all the Netflix stuff, but mostly skimming it.

Should I have split it across two blogs? I did cut this down quite a bit, it was only 2.1K, and some of that's from styling and repeating data with filters/new sorting and such.

Then again, I suppose you could argue it was a lot to basically say "MYM is underperforming; FiM's 1st season is doing really well worldwide still, better than a non-special season of MYM; TYT is doing quite well for a no-fanfare repeat of a YouTube webseries; the G5 film is outpacing them all".

Interesting that they published the data at all, though. I wonder whether any other platforms will feel pushed to do the same now?

I'm going to err on the side of no, given industry stances. Netflix negotiates with smaller studios for a lot of their content far more than anyone else, there was likely more post-strike pressure to do this for them than the likes of Disney or Warner. Heck, it's not even guaranteed Netflix will do this again come June, though I really hope they do.

[Loganberry]

5769174

Should I have split it across two blogs?

Nah, you do it however suits you. I'm just mostly here for the reviews and not as deeply interested in industry details as you are, so it all works out.

[iisaw]

Wow! G4S1 is top of the bunch (by a huge margin) despite being 14 years old and available on other services. That just tells me that it really is a lightning-in-a-bottle gem.

[Ghost Mike]

5769783

Wow! G4S1 is top of the bunch (by a huge margin) despite being 14 years old and available on other services.

Top of the bunch in watch hours, yes. When accounting by views (a programme's runtime divided by watch hours), the G5 movie is 2.7 times ahead of it. Such a metric obviously favours shorter programmes (I do wish there were separate lists for tv and movies), and especially those with only one episode/movie (it allows the 44-minute specials of MYM to be ahead of FiM Season One, if only marginally). But with a lead that strong, I wouldn't be surprised if, should Netflix still be releasing these stats by 2024, for the G5 movie to still be a minor perennial favourite while the show sinks into Netflix's bowels.

Your greater point is taken, though: for a kids' show of a prior generation to still be getting those kinds of stats now, even with the boost of the compilation videos on YouTube and it being top suggested after the poor kids struggle through MYM, is something. Because let's be honest: it's mostly kids and their parents watching FiM on something like Netflix, not us adults! I do wish we had stats from years past to see how it fared: one figure often tossed around was the show got ten times the viewership on Netflix it got on its original network, and that's just in the US/Canada.

One other thing I thought you might enjoy: the drop-off for the other seasons is severe largely because they're US/Canada only, which is just 80.13m of Netflix's 260.28m subs last year (30.79%). If we approximate how many of Season One's views were thus from North America, we can see the retention rate across the show's first four seasons (I omitted Seasons Five and Six as they were dropped from the service altogether halfway through H1 of 2023, and thus impractical to compare).

1. Friendship is Magic Season 1 (572 minutes): 11.08m hours
2. Friendship is Magic Season 2 (572 minutes): 8.1m hours
3. Friendship is Magic Season 4 (572 minutes): 6.1m hours
4. Friendship is Magic Season 3 (286 minutes): 3.4m hours

And adjusted for proportional views, to better compare with Season Three being half the length:

1. Friendship is Magic Season 1 (572 minutes): 11.08m hours, 1.16m proportional views
2. Friendship is Magic Season 2 (572 minutes): 8.1m hours, 850K proportional views, -26.72%
3. Friendship is Magic Season 3 (286 minutes): 3.4m hours, 713K proportional views, -16.11%
4. Friendship is Magic Season 4 (572 minutes): 6.1m hours, 640K proportional views, -10.24%

An approximation, but I think it shows how the show still has great staying power for those who have the option. Most of the quarter of Season One viewers who didn't come back would be the casual who only lasted a few episodes before deciding it wasn't for them, like you get with any show. Thereafter, it's a marginal enough drop-off rate, down to a trickle by Season Four. Pity the later seasons and their notable dip in quality isn't here to show us statistical proof it doesn't click with a lot of viewers, but this is plenty telling itself.

Also:

That just tells me that it really is a lightning-in-a-bottle gem.

iisaw, dear, love, sweetie. Don't pretend you needed that to be told to you, or even reaffirmation. I've seen you make this same "lighting in a bottle" statement many times, some recently on Loganberry's blogs.

[iisaw]

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Well, after all the crappy kid-vid I have seen lately, maybe I'm overly appreciative, or maybe I'm thinking of a different sort of lightning that usually comes in a mason jar rather than a bottle. I hear tell that if y'all drink enough moonshine ya forget pret'-near everythin'.