Netflix's Secret Codes Unlock More Movies Than You Can Imagine

How many movies do you think are currently available on Netflix? Well, you’re wrong. Or maybe you aren’t. No one knows; not even Netflix. In September of 2015, there was a rough estimate of 14,000 titles, but with rights and regional access in constant flux, keeping a running total isn’t even something the company is interested in monitoring. Partially, this is because there’s no marketing angle behind this number any longer, kind of like McDonald’s not posting a running total of burgers sold on its sign. We know the number is big, probably too big, and reflects an amount of material we could never work through completely in a single human life cycle.

We also rarely interact with the complete title list, instead operating from the Netflix suggestion algorithm that tells us what a computer knows we are going to enjoy. A few years back, this algorithm got rebranded into offering strangely specific genres instead of just telling you that a supercomputer finds your tastes predictable. I’ll never forget the first time Netflix offered me a list of “Sexual Thrillers With Dark Comedy and Science Fiction” and I shouted, “It knows me!”

But it has always been impossible to browse these category lists in a master format through Netflix’s site. Until now. The site What’s On Netflix cracked the code of accessing a region-free list of Netflix titles and genres. So the next time you’re worried that you’ve spent too much time looking for something on Netflix, instead of watching something on Netflix, try this one neat trick.

You’ll need to enter the following URL after signing in: http://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/INSERTNUMBER

Next, check out a list of genres and their associated code number, which you substitute in the INSERTNUMBER spot above. There is one list, compiled by master genre here, but the truly awe-inspiring wormhole of codes is right here. That second link also includes embedded links of literally thousands of genres, including sub-genres and actor- or director-based micro-divisions — even further divided by decade of release or appropriate age range.

You can see below the first half of the “Steamy” sub-genre to give you some idea of how many thousands of options this site opens up to Netflix users. Did you know there’s a full category of “Steamy Independent Dramas based on Books”?

Feel free to browse this list for types of movies you never knew you needed in your in life. Also, bookmark this page and we’ll update the URL to access these codes if it changes. Netflix is, understandably, a little upset that people are exploiting this system, so they’ve already changed the URL once this week.

If you’d like yet another Netflix lifehack, may I recommend this one neat trick, which my personal research proves is highly effective: