Netflix Tests a New “What’s Hot” Hub That Leans on Pure Popularity

Deciding what to watch has become its own kind of entertainment, and Netflix has spent years trying to make the choice easier. The homepage is a long scroll of personalized rows, and the service has repeatedly tested ways to cut through that clutter. The Netflix What’s Hot hub is the latest attempt.

Popularity-driven shortcuts aren’t new for the service. Netflix rolled its Top 10 rows out to more countries in 2020 after launching the feature in the UK in 2019, followed by Mexico. Those daily rankings were compiled by counting member accounts that watched a title for at least 2 minutes over the previous 24 hours.

What’s on Netflix reports that the hub has a large orange HOT wordmark across the top and a stack of rows below, all built around what people are watching right now. It sits at netflix.com/browse/genre/83112341 and is shown on TV and mobile devices. The US is the only region currently displaying the test, the outlet was told.

The page is built mostly from popularity data rather than hand-picked curation. The Buzzing Now row mixes new releases with older shows getting a fresh push, including ‘The Hunting Wives’, ‘Lupin’ and ‘Gossip Girl’. The hub also mixes Netflix Originals and licensed titles more evenly than most of the homepage does.

Beyond Buzzing Now, the page stacks Top 10 lists and genre charts. The Top 10 Films row was led by ‘Reminders of Him’ on November 12, followed by ‘The Gospel of Christmas’ and ‘Funny Money: The Dane Cook Story’. The Top 10 Series row included ‘Taken: Natalee Holloway’, ‘Black Doves’ and ‘From’. Those rankings refresh daily, so what you see will change quickly.

The genre rows give the page more personality. Popular in Horror featured ‘Stranger Things’, ‘Interview with the Vampire’ and ‘Midnight Mass’. Popular in Romance was led by ‘Bridgerton’. Popular in Anime included ‘One Piece’, tagged with a new season coming.

There is also a row for international hits. Hits From Around the World included ‘Godzilla Minus One’, and several K-dramas carried New Episode labels for their weekly drops. The page also has Top 10 rows for kids shows and kids movies.

The hub appears to fit a larger redesign effort. It lines up with a new TV design test that leans on what Netflix calls modules, special rows like the Top 10s and seasonal categories. What’s on Netflix reads it as a sign that Netflix wants to move browsing away from the homepage scroll toward purpose-built pages.

It also isn’t the only hub in play. It is the second dedicated hub in about a week, after one built around ‘KPop Demon Hunters: For the Fans!’. Labels like New Season, New Episode, Recently Added and Leaving Soon play a large role on the page, which gives it a timely feel that a plain chart lacks.

A popularity page answers a different question than the algorithm does. Netflix’s Top 10 lists are driven by viewing activity, not critic scores or user ratings, so a high ranking shows a title is popular or heavily sampled rather than the best thing to watch. That makes the hub a handy shortcut for the undecided, but not a verdict on quality.

The idea has a long history inside the company. Netflix began quietly testing objective, non-algorithmic discovery tools several years ago, exploring whether data on what’s popular could help members find something to watch. A dedicated page is a bigger commitment than a single row.

For now, this is a test. The report contains no official Netflix statement about the hub’s purpose beyond the test details. There is also no word on when, or whether, it will reach other regions.

That leaves plenty of open questions, from whether it will become a permanent fixture to how it will sit alongside the personalized homepage. If it sticks, it could change how viewers decide what to watch on a Friday night.

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