After the triumph of Edward Berger’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” at the BAFTAs, Netflix has revealed a surge in viewership for non-English language titles.
New Netflix data shows that in the U.K., viewing for non-English language stories has increased by 90% over the last three years. “All Quiet on the Western Front” is now Netflix’s fourth most popular non-English language film ever, with over 150 million hours viewed since its release on Oct. 14, 2022. It has been on Netflix’s global Top 10 Non-English Film list for 14 weeks and has reached the Top 10 Films in 91 countries, including Germany, the U.K., U.S., Australia, France, Mexico and South Korea.
“All Quiet on the Western Front” is nominated for nine Oscars,including best picture.Viewing figures for the film tripled after the BAFTA wins and Oscar nominations. For the week of Feb. 20-26, the film was in the No. 2 spot for non-English films, accumulating 5.47 million hours viewed.
The interest in non-English content in the U.K. is driven by young viewers, new data from pollsters YouGov reveals. One in 10 Britons (12%) have streamed or downloaded at least one foreign language film in the past month, as of February 2023, per YouGov. Among 18-24 year olds, this figure was 22%, 12% of whom had downloaded/streamed at least four films. YouGov’s equivalent data from February 2020 shows just 7% of Britons had downloaded or streamed a foreign language film – with just 12% of 18–24 year-olds.
Non-English language content on Netflix has been gaining in popularity for some time. In 2022, more than 70% of global viewing came from members watching a title from a country other than their own.
Seven of Netflix’s Top 10 most popular non-English films of all time premiered in 2022: “Troll” (Norway), “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Germany), “Black Crab” (Sweden), “Through My Window” (Spain), “The Takedown” (France), “Loving Adults” (Denmark) and “My Name is Vendetta” (Italy).
Over the past year, the top 10 most popular non-English language titles in the U.K. are:
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
“The Forgotten Battle”
“Troll”
“Blood Red Sky”
“Through my Window”
“Black Crab”
“My Name is Vendetta”
“Gangubai Kathiawadi”
“RRR” (Hindi-language dubbed version)
“Sooryavanshi”
