While Netflix has drawn criticism from some parts of the industry for its transparency around metrics — particularly since its decision to stop sharing total subscription figures — on the content front the streaming giant is happy to open its books. Since the end of 2023, the company has released biannual reports detailing viewership across its content, giving insight into which shows and films generated the biggest audiences and largest viewership time. The latest of these datasets, covering the first half of 2025, was released last week.
As Netflix emphasised when it first released one of these reports, it’s not simply a case of more views = more success from a business point of view. The costs of content relative to its viewership is obviously important, as is the nature of the audience watching it. For example a show which picks up one million viewers, half of whom signed up to Netflix specifically to watch it, could be more valuable to Netflix than a show which gets five million views, but almost entirely from existing subscribers who are unlikely to churn.
With all of that said, the reports always raise some interesting insights into how Netflix’s content is playing out. Here are some of the key trends from the first half of 2025.
New Originals Top the Rankings…
A common complaint in the media industry is an over-reliance from film and TV studios on sequels, prequels, and reboots to attract audiences. But Netflix’s viewership figures show that investment in fresh IP seems to be paying off, as many of its most viewed shows and films were not just Netflix Originals, but fresh concepts rather than follow ups to established franchises.
Only two out of Netflix’s ten most viewed films were sequels (The Secret Life of Pets 2 and Despicable Me 4, the 6th and 10th most viewed movies respectively), and it’s notable that the other eight were all Netflix Originals. On the TV side of things, where it might be expected that later series of established shows would top the charts, original limited series Adolescence took the top spot. Three other new limited series — Zero Day, Missing You, and Sirens — also made the top ten.
It’s been frequently noted just how valuable licensing popular older shows like Friends and The Office can be for streaming services. But for Netflix, it’s very much its new Originals which are delivering the highest viewing figures. Only one non-Original, Ms. Rachel, made the top thirty most viewed TV shows (more on that one later), and 26 shows in the top 30 came out this year.
Licensed content plays a bigger role in Netflix’s film catalogue. Here, seventeen of the thirty most viewed films were Originals, and all but one of these was released this year (with the other, Carry On, having been released in December).
… But There’s Value in the Archives
That’s not to say there’s no value in archive content. Netflix says that nearly half of viewing of Netflix Originals (across films and TV) in the first half of 2025 came from content which debuted in 2023 or earlier.
Looking at the viewership data, it is clear that the release of new seasons of existing series gives older seasons a viewership bump. Korean drama Squid Game took second and third spots on the TV rankings for seasons two and three respectively, which both released in the past seven months. Season one meanwhile took 12th spot, drawing 42 million views. Even a ‘Making Of’ special for season two drew a sizeable audience, with over ten million views. New seasons of The Night Agent, XO,Kitty, and Ginny & Georgia also appeared to give older seasons a boost.
Any indications that viewers are digging into the archives to watch older Original series and films will likely be watched closely by Netflix executives. It’s one thing for content to pick up a lot of views when it’s new and promoted heavily within the Netflix interface, but another thing entirely for audiences to keep coming back to them once this promotion window has passed.
International Productions Deliver Global Success
Part of the strength of Netflix’s model is that it can take content created in one market and distribute it internationally. And while some shows might only draw a domestic audience (which isn’t a bad thing by any means), others can end up becoming global successes.
As mentioned, Adolescence and Squid Game, filmed in the UK and Korea respectively, took the top three spots on the TV chart between them. Missing You (UK), XO, Kitty (Korea), When Life Gives You Tangerines (Korea), The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Korea), Secrets We Keep (Denmark), The Gardener (Spain), The Åre Murders (Sweden), La Palma (Norway), The Breakthrough (Sweden), and The Eternaut (Argentina) all made the top thirty.
The film rankings also feature a number of international titles, with German thriller Exterritorial, Spanish hostage movie Counterattack, and French action film Ad Vita all making the top ten.
Kids’ Content Highlights YouTube Potential
As VideoWeek has previously reported, kids content brings unique value to streaming services, with child-friendly shows and films often delivering some of the largest audiences. And it can play a significant role in preventing subscriber churn: you try telling your two year old they can’t watch Peppa Pig anymore because you want to cancel your Netflix subscription.
Peppa Pig, indeed, has its various seasons dotted throughout the list, with its most popular (season six, of course) topping 23 million views. Paw Patrol, CoComelon, and Gabby’s Dollhouse also have multiple seasons delivering more than ten million views. Looking at the film list, once you move beyond the very top spots, kid-friendly films feature heavily at the top end of the list. The Secret Life of Pets 1 and 2, Despicable Me 2, 3, and 4, Shrek 1 and 2, Sing, The Croods, Minions, The Boss Baby, Plankton: The Movie, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie all sit in the top 30.
One of the most interesting listings however was a new addition to Netflix this year: Ms. Rachel, which was the 7th most watched TV show with more than 53 million views. The series stars Rachel Accurso, a nursery rhyme-singing YouTuber with over 15 million subscribers on the video sharing platform. The four Netflix episodes (according to those more familiar with Accurso’s body of work) were already previously available on YouTube.
There’s been plenty of talk about whether Netflix might try running more YouTube-style content, or at least work more directly with YouTube talent. Kids’ content is of course its own unique world, so we shouldn’t draw too many conclusions from Ms. Rachel’s success. But the deal does show that Netflix is keeping something of an open mind as to where it sources its content from. And for the babies and toddlers watching Ms. Rachel on Netflix, the Overton window of Netflix-appropriate content might be widening…
Raw Data Looks Promising
The viewing data for the first half of the year gives the most comprehensive insight we’ve gotten into viewership for wrestling brand WWE’s live programming, which Netflix started running at the beginning of the year.
While Netflix has aired a fair few live events, the WWE deal is unique for the streaming service, since it involves regular weekly live broadcasts (as well as various tentpole specials throughout the year including Wrestlemania and the Royal Rumble).
Netflix announced after its first airing of Raw (one of WWE’s weekly shows, and the only show which Netflix airs in the US as well as international markets) that the stream had picked up 4.9 million Live+1 views globally. And while, as might have been expected, this was a high water mark in terms of viewership, Raw has continued to attract a large audience, with all but three episodes picking up over three million views.
WWE content outside of Raw, which Netflix airs internationally but not in the US, attracted fewer viewers. Smackdown, the WWE’s flagship weekly show alongside Raw, averages less than one million viewers per episode. Both nights of WrestleMania, WWE’s biggest event of the year, drew fewer than three million viewers. So if the hope was that unified international distribution would deliver a new massive global audience for the WWE, that doesn’t seem to have happened. Netflix’s figures indicate that the WWE remains a primarily American passion.
Again though, the value of WWE for Netflix will lie beyond pure weekly viewership. The WWE deal brings a niche but engaged audience, who need to keep their Netflix subscription year-round if they want to keep up with the weekly live shows. It also gives a tidy boost to Netflix’s ad inventory, since the live broadcasts show ads to all viewers, not just those who are subscribed to the ad-free tier.
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