Master Searching for Movies With Netflix Hidden Codes
I don’t know about you, but sometimes the vast number of movies available on Netflix leaves me paralyzed. I just can’t figure out what to watch, even though I’ve got an idea of what I’m looking for. It would be awesome if I could come across a master list of all of the streaming movie service’s genres and sub-genres. As luck would have it, I can, and so can you, through Netflix hidden codes.
Movie organization for the obsessive compulsive cinephile
This master list was first discovered by the blog What’s On Netflix, and goes way beyond the usual Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, and Romance. In fact, Netflix has “secret codes” for genres and sub-genres that most of us didn’t know even existed. These secret codes get put into the Netflix website address to bring up movie listings so refined that you’re sure to find just what you’re looking for.
Do we need all those sub-genres?
As of today, according to AllFlicks, a site that catalogs everything in Netflix’s library, the streaming video site boasts 5,174 releases. That includes 3,760 movies and 1,414 television series. That’s a lot to wade through, isn’t it?
That number is actually down from 2014, when the streaming movie service offered up 6,494 movies and 1,609 TV series, for a total of 8,103 titles. Even so, that’s a vast number of films and television shows to wade through, making the more generic genres and sub-genres bloated with stuff that probably doesn’t apply to you.
That’s where the secret code sub-genres come in handy. All you have to do is plug in the number for the category you want into a web page address, and voilà, you get a narrowly focused list of movies and television series.
How do I do it?
Here’s how it works. Once you find the secret code for the sub-genre you want to look at, all you have to do is put that number at the end of this URL:
http://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/INSERTNUMBER
For example, if I wanted to find every comic book and superhero movie in Netflix’s catalog, I’d type in this URL:
http://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/10118
Netflix's hidden category for comic book and superhero movies is great, but not perfect.
It’s not perfect, obviously. There’s no reason Jeff Dunham should be in that list, but there he is. Still, it’s a good tool to play around with. There are tons of different categories, narrowing down Netflix’s movies to precisely what you might be looking for. Want a good Irish movie? Just go to http://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/58750 and pick from there.
Great, but where do I find the list?
Since 2015, What’s On Netflix has maintained “The Netflix ID BIble – Every Category on Netflix.” You can visit that site and browse through three pages of categories and subcategories. Each listing gives you the code to insert at the end of the web page address, so browse through the category catalog and enjoy.
