when the strike first started, the streamers insinuated that they would never be transparent and release their streaming numbers because they were so good that the writers/actors would want a share so big that it would break them.
my theory, and i'm sure i did not invent it, is that they won't share the numbers because they're so bad that if released, their stock price would plummet.
the asterisk is that there really isn't a uniform way to measure the viewings, so it could/would likely be manipulated. what counts as a view for a show or a season? someone watching 10 seconds? 10 minutes? one episode? do they measure views for the pilot vs the finale?
and does when they watch count? broadcast network has relied on ratings for decades that really only count first-run views (this is why dvr recording was so controversial at first). these numbers were/are important because that's how they know how much to charge advertisers. but with streaming, there are no advertisers (for the most part), so it's hard to determine. do you need to watch it opening weekend? the first month? 3 months? 3 years? shows don't have reruns and streaming originals usually don't go away, but should views be counted years later?
there are too many variables, so my opinion is that when we finally do get some sort of numbers, they will be vague and hard to trust. that's why streamers like netflix are hard to trust. of course when i first started saying this, their stock was 100 points higher than it is now.