Murder Mystery was Netflix’s most popular 2019 release among Australian accounts, while The Witcher led the series ranking. The list also put Chris Lilley’s Lunatics second among series, but Netflix’s measure counted accounts that started a title for roughly two minutes during its first 28 days—not completed viewings or total hours watched.
The three Australian leaders
| Category | No. 1 |
|---|---|
| All 2019 releases | Murder Mystery |
| Series | The Witcher |
| Movies | Murder Mystery |
Netflix published the country-specific rankings on December 30, 2019. They covered films and television titles that premiered on, or were added to, Netflix during 2019, rather than every program Australians watched throughout the calendar year. The Australian list included Netflix originals and licensed programming.
Murder Mystery, starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston as a married couple caught in a European murder investigation, topped both the combined and movie lists. That establishes its position under Netflix’s popularity measure; it does not make it a judgment about quality or prove that it generated the most viewing hours.
Australia’s top 10 overall releases
| Rank | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | Murder Mystery |
| 2 | 6 Underground |
| 3 | The Witcher |
| 4 | Isn’t It Romantic |
| 5 | Lunatics |
| 6 | The Irishman |
| 7 | Stranger Things 3 |
| 8 | Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile |
| 9 | Triple Frontier |
| 10 | Dead to Me |
Source: PerthNow’s Australian ranking report.
Top 10 series
| Rank | Series entry |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Witcher |
| 2 | Lunatics |
| 3 | Stranger Things 3 |
| 4 | Dead to Me |
| 5 | The Umbrella Academy |
| 6 | Unbelievable |
| 7 | Dirty John |
| 8 | Sex Education |
| 9 | Rick and Morty: Season 4 |
| 10 | You: Season 2 |
The ranking preserves Netflix’s season-specific labels. It should not be read as an aggregate of every season of a show.
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Top 10 movies
| Rank | Movie |
|---|---|
| 1 | Murder Mystery |
| 2 | 6 Underground |
| 3 | Isn’t It Romantic |
| 4 | The Irishman |
| 5 | Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile |
| 6 | Triple Frontier |
| 7 | Aquaman |
| 8 | The Highwaymen |
| 9 | The Perfect Date |
| 10 | Falling Inn Love |
Aquaman demonstrates that the list was not limited to Netflix-produced films. It was a licensed title made available on the Australian service in 2019, despite having been released theatrically earlier.
What “watched” meant in Netflix’s ranking
Contemporary reporting described Netflix’s popularity calculation as the number of accounts that watched at least approximately two minutes of a title during its first 28 days on the service. Reports differ slightly between “the first couple of minutes” and “at least two minutes”, so this is best treated as a reported methodology rather than a published table of Australian audience totals. See the methodology context from Yahoo’s syndicated report and TV Guide.
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- The unit was Netflix accounts or member households, not a verified count of individual Australians.
- A short start does not show that a viewer finished a film, completed a season or continued beyond the opening minutes.
- Netflix did not release exact Australian account totals alongside these rankings.
- The lists therefore do not measure total hours, completion rates or every viewing made during 2019.
Why late releases could rank so high
The Witcher launched in December yet ranked first among series and third overall. Because end-of-year titles had not necessarily completed a full 28-day measurement window when the list was published, reports said Netflix used projections based on early viewing data. The same qualification matters for other recent releases, including 6 Underground and You: Season 2. Direct comparisons with titles available much earlier in the year are consequently imperfect. TheWrap explains the first-28-days and projection context at TheWrap.
The results that stand out in Australia
Lunatics was a major local success
Chris Lilley’s Lunatics placed second among series and fifth in the combined list, ahead of internationally prominent titles such as Stranger Things 3, Dead to Me and The Umbrella Academy. That result gives the Australian ranking a distinctly local character rather than simply reproducing a US or global order.
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Murder Mystery led over prestige releases
The movie ranking placed the broad Adam Sandler–Jennifer Aniston comedy above Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman. The ordering says which titles reached more accounts under Netflix’s short-start measure; it does not compare critical reputation, completion or time spent watching.
Licensed programming was part of the same list
Alongside Netflix originals, the rankings included acquired titles such as Aquaman and Rick and Morty: Season 4. Calling the results a list of “Netflix originals” would therefore be inaccurate.
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Australia had its own order
These were country-specific Australian rankings. They should not be merged with US or global lists, whose positions differed. TheWrap provides broader international context at this comparison.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to use the list today
The rankings are useful as a snapshot of the titles that generated the strongest early account-level engagement in Australia in 2019. They are not a guarantee that every title remains in the Australian catalogue. Netflix’s licensed availability changes, so check the current catalogue before subscribing solely to watch one of these films or series. Netflix’s official signup page is netflix.com/signup.
The most defensible conclusion is narrow: under Netflix’s reported first-28-days, short-start popularity method, Murder Mystery was Australia’s leading 2019 release and movie, while The Witcher was the leading series. The data do not establish which title Australians watched for the most total time.
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