The MindShare Index

What We Measure

The MindShare Index ranks what America is watching, listening to, and collectively experiencing across every major platform — streaming, music, podcasts, theaters, and live national events — using a single comparable score. The goal is simple: one chart that captures the full landscape of American cultural attention.

Every entry on the chart is scored using the same formula, regardless of category. A Netflix series competes directly with a Spotify track, a podcast, a theatrical film, and a NASA moon launch. The math decides the ranking.

Reading a Chart Entry

Each entry shows three things at a glance.

Rank sits in the left column — the large numeral, with a movement indicator (▲ / ▼ / — / NEW) directly underneath.

Category sits as a small uppercase label above the title. One of five, mutually exclusive: Live Event · Show · Movie · Music · Podcast. This tells you what kind of thing the entry is — not where you receive it.

Channels sit as colored pills below the blurb. They cover both reception (Broadcast, Cable, Theatrical, Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Prime, Hulu, Apple TV+, Peacock, Paramount+, Spotify) and attention (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, Podcast). The attention channels are intentional: TikTok appears on entries that have viral momentum on TikTok regardless of where they originate; Podcast appears on movies and shows that are driving heavy podcast discussion. Channels answer two questions at once: where can I receive this, and where is the cultural conversation happening.

The Formula

The entry with the highest raw score in the last 52 weeks defines 100.0. Everything else is relative to that peak. In a big week, the #1 might hit 100. In a quiet week, it might score 55. This is intentional — scores are directly comparable across weeks. A MindShare of 50 means the same thing in March as it does in August.

US Attention-Hours

The base metric is estimated total hours of active American attention directed at a piece of content in the measurement week. This is calculated differently for each platform because each publishes different data.

Netflix (v5.2)

Netflix is scored from its US Top 10 page (netflix.com/tudum/top10/united-states), which ranks the ten most-watched Films and Shows in the United States each week. We don’t get reported viewing hours from this page — only rankings — so attention-hours are derived from a rank-decay curve against a content-type baseline: 20M US attention-hours for US #1 TV Show, 15M for US #1 Film, decaying to roughly 4M at #10 Show and 3M at #10 Film. The decay curve mirrors the framework used for Disney+, HBO/Max, Prime, and other streamers where actual hours are also unavailable.

Library titles (catalog films riding an algorithmic resurgence, like a 2017 film re-entering the Top 10) receive a −30% discount off the rank-decay output, because library surges are less engaged than new-release viewing. Genuine cultural phenomena (a Stranger Things-tier premiere week) can receive a 1.5–3× editorial multiplier, documented in the entry’s blurb.

What changed from v5.1.3: Previously, Netflix scoring used the global TSV’s reported hours multiplied by a content-type US-share percentage (ranging from 5% to 45%). That multiplier was the single largest judgment call in Netflix scoring, introducing roughly ±50% error on any one title. The US Top 10 page replaces that guess with an actual US measurement. We lose reported-hours precision but gain geographic precision — the correct trade for a US-focused cultural attention chart. The global TSV is now used only as a validation check. Pre-v5.2 Netflix scores are not directly comparable.

Other Streaming (Disney+, HBO, Prime, Hulu, Peacock, Apple TV+, Paramount+)

None of these platforms publish viewing hours publicly. We estimate US weekly hours by combining FlixPatrol US rankings with Nielsen Gauge share ratios. For example, HBO/Max commands roughly 40% of Netflix’s US viewing share, so a #1 HBO title is estimated at approximately 40% of Netflix’s equivalent baseline, with rank decay applied to lower positions. The same rank-decay framework is now used for Netflix as of v5.2, bringing Netflix’s scoring into line with the approach used everywhere else.

Theatrical

Domestic box office grosses are converted to attention-hours: weekend gross divided by average ticket price ($11.50), multiplied by runtime. An $80M opening weekend for a 2.5-hour film produces roughly 18M attention-hours.

Podcasts

Spotify podcast charts and YouTube view counts are global, not US. We apply a US-share estimate by show type, just as we do for Netflix. Available data indicates approximately 50% of JRE’s listeners are outside the United States; US-culture-heavy shows like Call Her Daddy skew higher (~65% US). Podcast attention-hours combine Spotify plays and YouTube full-episode views, adjusted for partial listening. A 3-hour podcast episode doesn’t generate 3 hours of attention per play — completion rates are typically 50–60% for long-form content. We apply a 1.25-hour average for Spotify listens, a 30-minute average for YouTube views (where a “view” counts at 30 seconds), deduct 15% for cross-platform overlap, then apply the US-share percentage.

Music (Artist-Level Entries)

Beginning with Vol. 1 No. 10, music is scored at the artist level, not the individual track level. The cultural unit for music is the artist — just as TV is scored by show and podcasts by show. All of an artist’s charting tracks on the Spotify US Top 200 are combined into a single entry, with individual tracks listed in the entry details for transparency.

Spotify publishes exact weekly US stream counts but represents approximately 31% of US music streaming. We apply a Platform Coverage Correction once per artist that accounts for all-platform streaming (3.2× base), radio rotation intensity, TikTok sound usage, and ambient environmental play. A major radio artist with heavy TikTok presence might receive a 7–10× correction. A streaming-only artist with no radio gets the base 3.2×. Radio intensity and ambient levels are editorial judgments, assigned consistently and documented for each entry.

Broadcast TV (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX)

Beginning with Vol. 1 No. 9, broadcast television series are scored using Nielsen overnight (Live+Same Day) ratings combined with next-day streaming estimates from Hulu and Peacock. A show drawing 5 million L+SD viewers for a 1-hour episode generates approximately 5M live attention-hours, plus an estimated 1–3M additional hours from next-day streaming depending on its Hulu/Peacock trending position. Notable broadcast entries include SNL (which also generates significant YouTube clip attention), prime-time dramas (Grey’s Anatomy, 9-1-1, Matlock), and live entertainment events.

Major National Events

Beginning with Vol. 1 No. 9, the chart includes Major National Events — live broadcasts, ceremonies, and historic moments that command measurable, intentional American attention at scale. If tens of millions of Americans chose to watch it, it belongs on the chart alongside streaming premieres and podcast episodes.

Events must pass a Three-Gate Eligibility Test to chart:

This lets in: the Super Bowl, championship games, NASA missions, the Oscars/Grammys/Emmys, presidential debates, and historic trials. It keeps out: the daily news cycle, viral social media moments, political drama without a broadcast event, and ambient cultural chatter.

Event viewership data is typically stronger than streaming estimates — live broadcasts generate next-day Nielsen ratings, and platforms report concurrent viewer peaks. For multi-day events, each day is estimated separately and summed.

Per-Content Viewing Cap

When estimating attention-hours from viewers × duration (box office, live events, broadcast TV), per-viewer duration is capped at 3 hours per content per broadcast window. Nobody watches every second of an 18-hour golf tournament or a 6-hour awards pre-show end to end. This cap prevents long-duration events from producing inflated scores. It does not affect platform-reported hours (Netflix, HBO, etc.), which already reflect actual viewing behavior.

The Periphery (Prototype)

Beginning with Vol. 1 No. 11, the chart includes a sidebar called The Periphery — a separate view tracking five always-on platforms: TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, ChatGPT, and Claude. The main chart measures discrete weekly content events (shows, songs, episodes, films). The Periphery measures the ambient attention infrastructure that runs underneath them — where attention lives between events.

Periphery scores are computed as aggregate US weekly attention-hours per platform, indexed against the same rolling 52-week peak as the main chart. Sharing the benchmark is the design choice: it makes the two views directly comparable, which lets the Periphery answer a question the main chart cannot — how big are these platforms relative to a single cultural event? The answer is large. Major social platforms regularly score above 100 on the Periphery, meaning their weekly ambient attention exceeds the biggest single cultural moment of the year.

Refresh cadence is monthly, not weekly. Major-platform usage shifts on month-or-longer timescales; weekly refreshes would be noise. The sidebar shows a "Next refresh" label.

Deltas reflect researched platform-usage trends, not peak movement. The arrow indicators next to each platform are hand-curated month-over-month estimates from public usage data — they describe whether the platform's underlying attention is growing, flat, or declining. They are deliberately not mechanical recalculations against the previous month's score, which would swing whenever the 52-week peak moved without representing any real change in user behavior.

Why "Prototype": Per-platform attention-hour estimates currently combine public usage stats (eMarketer, Data.ai, SimilarWeb) and trade-press disclosures (TechCrunch, Backlinko). That is honest enough to publish but not to claim as a fully sourced production methodology. The Periphery will graduate from "Prototype" to "Production" once each of the five platforms has a locked, citable canonical source. Until then the sidebar carries the prototype label and a "values estimated" disclosure.

Multipliers

Depth Multiplier

Not all hours are equal. A consumed podcast hour represents deeper engagement than a scrolled-past TikTok. The depth multiplier weights attention by focus and intentionality.

Velocity Bonus

New content receives a temporary boost to ensure fresh entries can compete with established titles. Week 1: 1.25×. Week 2: 1.12×. Weeks 3–4: 1.05×. Week 5+: no bonus.

Cultural Reach

Measures how many distinct platforms and contexts a piece of content appears in. A Netflix show that’s also trending on TikTok, driving Spotify streams, and generating news discourse scores higher than one that lives only on Netflix. Each secondary platform and cultural context adds 0.15 to the multiplier, capped at 2.0×.

Cultural Velocity (Display Metric)

The Cultural Velocity bar on each chart entry is a composite score (0–100) measuring how much cultural momentum a title carries this week. It combines three components:

Cultural Velocity is a display metric only — it does not affect the MindShare score calculation. It’s designed to help readers quickly spot which entries are surging this week versus which are established and holding.

Recency Decay

Content loses relevance over time. Entries in weeks 1–2 have no decay. By weeks 9–20, the decay factor is 0.65×. Evergreen catalog content (21+ weeks) decays to 0.50×, which is intentional — these tracks persist through ambient cultural presence, but at reduced scores reflecting that they are not “of the moment.”

Data Sources

What We Disclose

Update Schedule

The MindShare Index updates every Tuesday, aligned with Netflix’s weekly data publication. Each edition covers the prior Monday–Sunday measurement week. The chart is labeled with that week (e.g., “Week of March 23–29, 2026”).

Questions about the methodology? Reach out to Conor Sullivan at Sullivan Brothers.