How Did HBO’s Licensed Titles Including ‘Ballers’ & ‘Insecure’ Perform On Netflix In 2023?

Remember when HBO licensed those originals to Netflix last year?

Well, it’s finally time to see if the move paid off for Netflix, as the streamer just released another round of data that encapsulates all viewing on the platform from July to December 2023. That includes shows like Insecure, Band of Brothers, The Pacific and the rest of the HBO originals that landed on Netflix last July.

So, how did they do?

It looks like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was the star of the show, as Ballers tallied 33.5M views across all five seasons — by far the highest of the bunch. Season 1 came in No. 139 on the overall list with just under 11M views alone. Considering the list includes thousands of titles, that’s pretty good.

Insecure generated the second-highest total of 14.4M views. The Issa Rae comedy series had fairly modest per-season viewership with Season 1 managing about 4M views during that six month timespan.

The Pacific brought home 9.6M views, Band of Brothers put up another 8.8M, and Six Feet Under was responsible for 7.3M.

Insecure is the most recent of the bunch, and it premiered in 2016. Several of the titles are more than a decade old, which reinforces the idea that they are finding somewhat of a new life on Netflix as new audiences are introduced to them.

Their numbers can’t hold a candle to some of the new, flashy Netflix originals that racked up 50M+ views for just one season alone, but that’s not necessarily the purpose they were meant to serve.

Licensed titles collectively generate tons of consistent viewership for Netflix and help reduce churn in between seasons of subscribers’ favorite originals. While it’s certainly nice for the streamer (and the studio who licensed the content) when something explodes à la Suits, the content that chugs along in the background with lower, dependable viewership is also valuable.

Of course, the licensing fee is also a major factor here, because the amount Netflix paid to have the streaming rights will be directly related to whether the streamer views the titles as a success.