What Netflix’s star ratings actually mean

Entertainment

October 10, 2016

If you’re anything like us, you thought the “Stars rating” under Netflix movies and shows was simply an aggregate of all reviews.

While that’s true to some degree, there’s actually a lot more to that five-point-scale reports BGR.

“When you’re looking at movie’s splash page, for example, the corresponding rating you see isn’t a running average of how all Netflix users ranked the film.”

“Rather, the ranking represents what users who have similar entertainment tastes as you thought of the movie. As a result, it’s entirely possible for the same movie to display two different ratings for two different accounts.”

That means the star rating is actually more curated to you as a user rather than just an average score.

“So if you happen to be a viewer who has absolutely no interest in sports documentaries, you’re not going to be recommended a 30 for 30 episode even if it garners 5 star ratings across the board.”

“Similarly, if I see that shows like Prison Break and Breaking Bad have 5 stars, Netflix is basically saying that users with similar tastes to my own are really big fans of those two programs.”