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Netflix is now more popular than eating and sex

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 9:05PM EST
Netflix Popularity

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Priced at $7.99/month and teeming with incredible content, a Netflix subscription is a no-brainer. In addition to a vast library of movies and TV shows, Netflix also offers an ever-increasing selection of highly addictive original programming. With the streaming site offering up a whole lot of bang for the buck, the amount of time people are spending watching Netflix continues to rise.

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According to a recent study from TDGResearch, the average Netflix viewer watches about an hour and a half of content per day, easily surpassing time-honored traditions such as reading (49 minutes/day) and eating (70 minutes/day).

As the chart below reveals — courtesy of Extreamist — the time spent watching Netflix only lags behind sleep, work, and an aggregate of other leisure activities.

Meanwhile, people are spending more time watching Netflix than they are eating, reading, shopping, and most any other activity one can think of. Going forward, one has to imagine that this pattern will only continue to trend upwards.

Speaking to this point, the following chart via Slashfilm demonstrates how the average number of hours spent watching Netflix each month has risen steadily over the last four years.

Notably, the TDGResearch report isn’t the first time we’ve heard of Netflix viewing occupying a disproportionate amount of leisure time. Just this past summer, for instance, a survey in England found that teens were spending more time watching programming on Netflix than spending time with their families, hanging out with friends, gaming, or playing sports.

Incidentally, Netflix in the coming years may not only face stiff competition from the likes of Hulu, but also from Apple. Believe it or not, but a report in Variety this week claimed that Apple is exploring the prospect of producing its own original programming. We crunched a few numbers and figured out how much it would cost Apple to get into the original content business. Needless to say, it’s expensive. If Apple were to release 10 high quality shows a’la Game of Thrones and Mad Men, it would cost the company upwards of $580 million.

Yoni Heisler Contributing Writer

Yoni Heisler has been writing about Apple and the tech industry at large with over 15 years of experience. A life long expert Mac user and Apple expert, his writing has appeared in Edible Apple, Network World, MacLife, Macworld UK, and TUAW.

When not analyzing the latest happenings with Apple, Yoni enjoys catching Improv shows in Chicago, playing soccer, and cultivating new TV show addictions.