The German Netflix production “Liebes Kind” recorded around 25 million views within ten days. The six-part miniseries leads the current global ranking of non-English-language series on Netflix and is in the top ten series in over 90 countries.
This means that the mysterious and bloody story based on the novel by Romy Hausmann is overtaking the popular manga film adaptation “One Piece”. While this adaptation had ten million views this week, the German miniseries had over 15 million views. Compared to the German series, “One Piece” was able to rely on a large anime fan base even before it launched on Netflix. However, “One Piece” has been running a week longer than its new competitor.
The story of “Liebes Kind” is gruesome, also because it is reminiscent of Natascha Kampusch and similar real-life cases: a mother and her two children were apparently held and controlled for years in a house without windows. But the escape doesn’t bring any relief. Is the kidnapped woman a woman who has been missing for 13 years? A DNA test raises more questions than answers.
The psychological thriller has been running internationally on Netflix since September 7th under the title “Dear Child” and impresses with its creepy surprise moments. “Liebes Kind” was Romy Hausmann’s thriller debut in 2019 and led at times Mirror-Bestseller list. Isabel Kleefeld and Julian Pörksen are responsible for the script and direction, and can now build on the success of the book.
Regarding the breakthrough of the series, it should be noted that Netflix does not equate the number of views with the actual number of viewers. Since this summer, the top ten rankings are no longer calculated simply by adding up the hours viewed, which means that productions with a long running time have a certain advantage.
Instead, the decisive number of views is now determined by the hours viewed divided by the playing time. In addition, the retrievals are now considered within the first 91 days and not within the first 28 days as before.