Streaming services have made it incredibly easy for people to watch multiple episodes—or even entire seasons—at a time. According to a 2013 Nielsen report, 88% of Netflix users and 70% of Hulu Plus users say they’ve streamed three or more episodes of the same program in a single day.
And for most of the world, binge watching is very much a solitary activity.
It turns out most of these viewers—60%—are bingeing all by their lonesome, on average spending about four hours at a time, according to a report from the Arris Group, a US company that manufactures equipment for cable companies. A survey released today polling 19,000 people about their media consumption reveals some fascinating trends across different parts of the world.
Solo binge viewing is most dominant in Japan. Eighty percent of respondents in the country say they regularly tune out in front of the tube by themselves. Overall, the trend is more common in Asia, with at least 69% of respondents in China, South Korea, and Singapore saying they binge watch alone.
India is the outlier here at 50%, and that’s likely due to the fact that wired internet penetration lags behind mobile phones in the country. According to Arris Group, 69% of binge watchers are viewing on TVs compared with 21% on a mobile devices.
Mexico is the other major exception. Judging by binge viewing activity alone, it appears to be more social than any of the markets surveyed. Only 40% of people there say they binge watch by themselves. Furthermore, it also has the highest rate (60%) of binge watching among couples.