Television

Netflix Reveals Users' 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch' Choices And Teases More Interactive Entertainment

black mirror bandersnatch choices
By Ben Pearson

Netflix is notoriously stingy when it comes to releasing any information about its user base and their viewing habits – except, of course, when that data makes the company look good or its social media managers are allowed to have a bit of fun with its audience.

Now the company has pulled back the veil of secrecy and offered a brief peek at some of the Black Mirror: Bandersnatch choices users made when watching the interactive movie. Read on to discover the numbers and a quote from chief content officer Ted Sarandos that strongly implies we're going to be seeing much more of this type of interactive storytelling from Netflix.

Before we get to the data, Deadline relays a quote Sarandos said during Netflix's fourth-quarter earnings video:

Sarandos said Netflix is still trying to determine whether the five-hour-long interactive episode, with its branching narrative, is a novelty that worked because it fit so well with the Black Mirror science-fiction anthology series, or if it's more broadly applicable.

"We've got a hunch that it works across all kinds of storytelling," Sarandos said. "And some of the greatest storytellers in the world are eager to dig into it."

Netflix has deals in place with big producers like Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy, and Kenya Barris – could we see them use this technology in upcoming projects soon? We'll keep an ear to the ground.

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is Netflix's first original interactive film for adults, a thriller about a video game designer named Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead) whose life spins out of control during the development of a game based on a "choose your own adventure"-style book. We've written about a lot about it since it debuted just after Christmas, and now that a few weeks have passed, Netflix is revealing some information about the choices we made.

That's a reference to the first choice in the movie: whether to eat Frosties or Sugar Puffs when Stefan's dad offers him the option of two cereals a few minutes into the film.

Here's a statistic that's specific to British audiences:

One of the movie's other early choices is whether or not Stefan will develop his game at Tuckersoft. This is the first option that has tangible consequences, resulting either in a continuation of the story or in an early ending that leads you to go back and choose again. It turns out a majority of viewers made the "wrong" choice here:

But most interestingly, yet another Netflix-related Twitter account chimed in with details about an ending the users selected – or, in this case, didn't select:

I watched about two hours of Bandersnatch and did not come across that ending, so I guess I'm in the majority there. I wish they could have provided a more specific breakdown of how many users saw which ending, but I guess that might be complicated since the point of Bandersnatch is to go back and experience alternate versions of the story. Maybe they'll release some more detailed numbers in the coming days – after all, they've succeeded in keeping us talking about this movie for an entire month after it first debuted, so I expect they'll continue to keep it on everyone's minds for as long as possible.

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