Netflix’s Creator Data Reveals the First Big Winners: YouTube StarsNew reporting reveals how a handful of nonexclusive voices are performing as podcast stats remain scant and one surprise animated hit breaks through
I wrote about reps’ race to sign buzzy Love Island stars, the robust creator M&A deal flow so far this year, which creators are winning with the 2026 World Cup, and Hollywood’s creator gold rush. I’m natalie@theankler.com
Netflix dropped its bi-annual engagement report on Thursday afternoon alongside its second quarter earnings, and the streamer offered up some new insights into how creator-first programming is performing with its 325 million subscribers. In January 2025, Ms. Rachel, a juggernaut for toddler-friendly programming, began streaming a small curated collection of her existing YouTube videos on Netflix, and audiences went crazy for it. Ms. Rachel videos, which all still stream on YouTube as well, were viewed 126 million times last year, when Netflix subscribers watched more than 383 million hours of the eight episodes available (four from January and an additional four that dropped in September). In response, Netflix has been stocking its service with non-exclusive videos from other family-friendly YouTube creators — Mark Rober, Danny Go! and Salish and Jordan Matter. Netflix’s “What We Watched” report, which covers the first six months of 2026, gives the first real window into how those shows have been performing, and spoiler alert, they’re doing really well. This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given that in just the last few days, Netflix has announced even more deals to bring videos from YouTube creators to its platform, including Rhett & Link, Nick DiGiovanni, Alan Chikin Chow and the Stokes Twins. In this latest report, Ms. Rachel was once again the top performer across all Netflix kids programming, with her first season clocking 37 million views and ranking as the No. 9 most-watched program during the period (behind No. 1 His & Hers with 104 million views). Her two seasons combined had 69 million views. But the rest of the YouTube content also performed well, particularly among kids & family programs.
Netflix released the engagement data alongside second quarter earnings as reports have swirled about the platform suffering a decline in engagement. And indeed, the company’s download shows that it struggled to produce a massive hit during the period. (The performance of His & Hers, for example, was well below Adolescence, the top hit from the first half of 2025, which had nearly 145 million views and 100 million more hours viewed.) Engagement is a big reason Netflix has been striking deals with creators, even though just last year Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos dinged YouTube as a place for “killing time.” (He has also called YouTube a “farm league” for talent.) It’s also why Netflix has been investing real money to bulk up its offering of video podcasts. Related:I’m back in your inboxes this week with a special installment breaking down all the insights from the report, starting with how those podcasts are doing. Paid subscribers can keep reading for:
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