Hundreds of Netflix users rated 50,000 movies, shows

Hundreds of Netflix users have been awfully busy rating movies and television shows, The Atlantic has found.

According to the publication, which claims to have viewed internal Netflix documents, "several hundred" Netflix users have rated 50,000 or more movies and television shows on the service. A little over 10,000 users have rated more than 20,000 items in Netflix's catalog. Just 1 percent of the company's user base--about 150,000 people--have rated more than 5,000 films and shows.

Those folks are extremely active compared with the vast majority of Netflix users. According to The Atlantic, the average Netflix user has rated just 200 films and television shows.

Admittedly, rating a television show or a film on Netflix isn't all that difficult or time-consuming. Users need only to log into their accounts and click on the star rating they would give each item. On a typical listing page, users can rate dozens of movies or television shows in a few minutes. Netflix subscribers can also rate content on the company's Instant Streaming service.

There is a practical reason why users would want to rate films and shows. Netflix's recommendation engine offers up movie and show ideas to users based on their ratings. The more ratings, the greater the chance that the recommendation engine will deliver viable results.

However, 50,000 items might be overkill.