In 2025, Americans streamed 16.7 trillion minutes of television, according to Nielsen.
The single most-watched title was Bluey, a cartoon about a family of Australian dogs.
Each episode runs about eight minutes.
The most streamed shows 2025 reflect viewer preferences.
Second place went to Grey’s Anatomy, a medical drama that premiered in 2005. It ranks among the most streamed shows 2025.
The show with the biggest new-episode event of the year is the final season of Stranger Things.
It came in third.
Everything else in Nielsen’s overall top 10 for 2025 was a library series, with most streamed shows 2025 among them.
The list includes NCIS, SpongeBob SquarePants, Bob’s Burgers, and Family Guy.
It also features The Big Bang Theory, Law & Order: SVU, and Criminal Minds.
This is not a one-year quirk; it reflects the most streamed shows 2025. Additionally, it is the pattern.
The numbers
Nielsen’s year-end streaming rankings brand the ARTEY Awards. They measure minutes viewed on TV sets across the major services. The most streamed shows 2025 are led by Bluey at 45.2 billion minutes and Grey’s Anatomy at 40.9 billion.
Nielsen notes that Grey’s Anatomy has finished among the top six streaming titles in the last five years. It also credits the show’s catalog of more than 400 episodes.
The most extreme example is older still. Gunsmoke, a Western that ended in 1975, rose from 10.2 billion minutes in 2024 to 22.5 billion in 2025. It was Nielsen’s most-binged title, and it sits among the most streamed shows 2025.
The first half of 2026 looks the same.
Additionally, Nielsen’s midyear report, published August 4, 2026, shows Stranger Things at 23.3 billion minutes.
Furthermore, Bluey at 22.8 billion; The Pitt at 21.1 billion.
Moreover, Grey’s Anatomy at 20.4 billion and The Big Bang Theory at 20.4 billion.
Additionally, Six of the ten most-streamed titles were library shows.
This aligns with the most streamed shows 2025 patterns.
Then, in the week of July 27, 2026, The Big Bang Theory topped Nielsen’s weekly streaming chart.
Additionally, it logged 1.14 billion minutes on HBO Max, per TheWrap.
The trigger was the spin-off Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, which had not yet charted.
However, it was among the most streamed shows 2025, and the old show benefited more than the new one.
Why it keeps happening with the most streamed shows 2025
Industry explanations have remained consistent since summer 2023. Suits, a legal drama ending in 2019, pulled nearly 18 billion minutes in July. These minutes accrued across Netflix and Peacock. The data highlight audience reactions to specific series.
Suits finished 2023 with 57.7 billion minutes, breaking The Office’s 2020 record. Nielsen’s top 10 that year contained no streaming originals. These trends inform the focus on the most streamed shows 2025 across platforms. Analysts note that viewing patterns vary by service and genre.
One factor is availability across services, reflecting the most streamed shows 2025. Suits was on two platforms at once, and Nielsen’s counts combine them. This pattern also affects how viewers compare libraries. Such cross-platform listings can influence rankings and recommendations.
The same is true of Grey’s Anatomy on Hulu and Netflix. Paw Patrol was counted across three services in 2026 by Nielsen. Nielsen’s method aggregates options to show total availability. That approach may not reflect user experience on a single service.
NPR’s Eric Deggans observed in 2023 that viewers take comfort in starting a series. It already has nine seasons waiting.
Nielsen’s own data shows the contrast. The most streamed shows 2025 trend highlights these patterns. Family Guy sat on the weekly top 10 for 37 weeks in 2025.
Stranger Things earned 65 percent of its 2025 total in a five-week window around its final episodes. It then had to be replaced by something else.
A third factor is supply. There simply are fewer new shows. This trend reduces opportunities for new franchises and seasonal bloat. Industry data points to slower commissioning by streamers. Executives cite profitability pressures and risk management. These dynamics shape the release slate this year.
Ampere Analysis reported in September 2026 that new series orders fell 41 percent from 2022 to 2025. Orders dropped from 1,144 to 678. TheWrap counted 759 scripted shows ordered at the 2021 peak. They ranged between 478 and 493 in 2023 to 2025. The report ties the drop to profitability pivots and the 2023 strikes. This shift affects the most streamed shows 2025 lineup.
Netflix has openly encouraged the shift. On its fourth-quarter 2023 earnings call, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the company was ‘open for business’. He pointed to Suits as proof that Netflix could resurrect a title.
Parrot Analytics estimated in April 2024 that licensed content accounted for nearly half of Netflix’s TV catalog demand. Paramount’s Nickelodeon shows and Warner Bros. Discovery’s CW and HBO titles were the biggest contributors. This trend highlights the most streamed shows 2025 shaping Netflix’s licensing and catalog strategy.
YouTube is a major player. Moreover, in Nielsen’s May 2026 report of The Gauge, streaming accounted for 48.6 percent of TV watch time. YouTube alone accounted for 13.8 percent. It is well ahead of Netflix at 8.0 percent. Additionally, the most streamed shows 2025 illustrate this lead.
The Los Angeles cost and the most streamed shows 2025
Reruns do not employ many people. New episodes do.
FilmLA’s second-quarter 2026 report counted 4,711 on-location shoot days in Greater Los Angeles, down 12.7 percent from the same quarter of 2025 and about 36 percent below the five-year average. Television overall fell 27.7 percent year over year. TV comedy dropped to 57 shoot days, from 100. Reality TV fell 39.9 percent.
For comparison, the same quarter in 2019 recorded 8,632 shoot days.
Luminate’s May 2026 analysis found that Los Angeles hosted about 40 percent of U.S. scripted series in the first quarter of 2019 and less than 25 percent in the first quarter of 2026. Luminate also found that the low-budget tier of shows, under $1 million per episode, has nearly disappeared, taking entry-level crew work with it.
The one bright spot in the FilmLA report was TV drama, which was up 55 percent from the previous quarter, with 38 percent of those shoot days tied to California’s expanded tax credit program. FilmLA CEO Denise Gutches said in the report that scripted television supports more industry jobs than any other production category.
That is the tension in the numbers. The shows pulling the most minutes, Grey’s Anatomy, The Big Bang Theory, Criminal Minds, NCIS, are products of a network era of long seasons and deep episode counts. The crews that build libraries like that are the ones FilmLA is now counting in decline.
One more date matters. MediaPost reported on August 18, 2026 that the June 2026 Gauge was the last before Nielsen recalibrates the report with new audience estimates for the fall TV season, and that analysts expect the revised figures to show streaming with a smaller lead over broadcast and cable. The rerun numbers will not change. The denominator might.
Sources
- Nielsen: Top Streaming Shows and Movies, ARTEY Awards (2025)
- TV Insider: 2025 Streaming Show and Movie Ratings Revealed
- TheWrap: ‘Bluey,’ ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Among Nielsen’s Most-Watched Streaming Titles of 2025
- Nielsen: The Nielsen ARTEY Awards: 2024 Streaming Unwrapped
- Nielsen: ‘Stranger Things,’ ‘Bluey,’ ‘The Pitt’ Top Nielsen’s Streaming Charts Through First Half of 2026
- Nielsen: Streaming Landscape 2026: Trends from the First Half of the Year
- Nielsen: Streaming Embarks on Annual Summer Ascent in Nielsen’s May 2026 Gauge Reports
- Nielsen: Streaming Shatters Multiple Records in December 2025 with 47.5% of TV Viewing
- MediaPost: Streaming Climbs To 48.5%, Per Last Lame Duck Edition Of Nielsen’s ‘Gauge’ (Aug. 18, 2026)
- TheWrap: Inside ‘The Big Bang Theory’s Explosive Streaming Moment
- Nielsen: Streaming grabs a record 38.7% of total TV usage in July, with acquired titles outpacing new originals (2023)
- Reuters via Yahoo Finance: ‘Suits’ sets new streaming record in 2023, eclipsing ‘The Office’ (Jan. 29, 2024)
- NPR: ‘Suits’ just set a streaming record years after it ended. Here’s what’s going on (Aug. 17, 2023)
- Deadline: Netflix urges studios to license more titles (Jan. 2024)
- Parrot Analytics: The power of licensed content in the Netflix catalog (April 15, 2024)
- TV Tech: Study: New Streaming TV Series Orders Plummet (Sept. 8, 2026, citing Ampere Analysis)
- TheWrap: How 2025 Rewrote Hollywood’s Playbook for Leaner Scripted Shows (Dec. 29, 2025)
- FilmLA: California Film Tax Incentives Continue to Create Job Opportunities in Scripted Production (Q2 2026 report, July 23, 2026)
- TheWrap: Los Angeles On-Location Production Sinks 12% Despite New Tax Credits, FilmLA Study Shows
- Luminate: The Data Behind L.A.’s Lagging TV Production (May 22, 2026)
