Like any streaming service worth its salt, Netflix boasts a user interface that’s very easy to use and navigate, but the pitfalls of having so much content on offer inevitably leads to endless deliberation on the part of the viewer.
As a buffet of film and television titles spanning decades and covering virtually every genre under the sun, there isn’t a subscriber out there who hasn’t found themselves aimlessly and endlessly scrolling through the deluge of categories and subcategories to find the perfect thing to watch at the ideal time.
However, there’s a solution to make things a whole lot easier, and it’s not one that’s been widely publicised or heavily marketed, either. All it takes is the entry of a simple numerical code, and a bespoke selection of movies and TV shows are made instantly available for perusal.
For action and adventure flicks, it’s 1365. Children and family is 783, independent cinema is 7077, romantic favourites is the slightly lengthier 502675, cult classic sci-fi and fantasy stories is 4734, and cult horror is 10944. That’s just the tip of a very large iceberg, though, and the secret codes date back a lot longer than anybody may think.
According to Netflix itself, there are currently upwards of 36,000 secret codes that range from being fairly broad to highly specific. For example, for somebody who doesn’t want to watch a feature that exceeds 90 minutes in length, entering 81466194 eliminates everything even vaguely epic.
For those with a penchant for darkness, zeroing in the focus on fantasy to witchcraft and the dark arts is 81552046. It sounds tailor-made for the on-demand and streaming era, but the secret codes originated back in the day when the only way to enjoy Netflix was being sent a DVD through the post.
At the time, the company’s website had what it calls “a public-facing genre tree” that covered every title available to rent at the time, and every single one of them had its own identification code. An enterprising user took the codes, shared the list online, and suddenly Netflix was awarded a greater level of specificity than ever before.
Some inevitably prove more useful than others given the sheer volume available, but with over 36,000 to choose from, Netflix is quite literally capable of scratching every imaginable itch for anyone who finds themselves bogged down in the almost-daily struggle of settling on exactly what it is they want to watch.
