Nielsen has released their table of the Top 15 most-streamed shows of 2022. Unsurprisingly – it’s Netflix’s Stranger Things, Ozark, and Wednesday – top the list of streaming originals. Netflix has 13 of the Top 15 places. Only Amazon Prime’s The Boys and Rings of Power managed to grab a spot from the streaming giant which still dominates the market, despite Netflix’s struggles in 2022.
Stranger Things substantially the leads the way, with over 50 billion minutes streamed, and Ozark has over 30 billion. Wednesday – which only has 8 episodes so far – sees a pretty big drop, to 18 billion minutes. Elsewhere in the Top 10 is the nostalgic Cobra Kai, two romance shows (Bridgerton and Virgin River), two true crime series (Dahmer and Inventing Anna), and the reality show Love is Blind.
Amazon’s Rings of Power, which had a gargantuan budget, comes in at number 15 with 9.4 billion minutes. They were probably hoping for it to be higher up, but that could happen once further seasons come out. Wednesday, Dahmer, Inventing Anna, and Rings of Power have the lowest number of episodes (8-10 each) – so their achievements are more impressive.
On the overall list of the Top 15 streaming programs, Netflix once again dominates, with 11 of the 15 spots. Disney Plus crops up on this list – with Encanto, Bluey, and The Simpsons. More traditional and long-running shows such as medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, and procedurals like NCIS and Criminal Minds are on this list – which all have over 350 episodes each. Several shows which ended some time ago are still proving popular include Seinfeld (ended in 1998), Gilmore Girls (ended in 2007), and Supernatural (ended in 2020).
It’s always interesting to see which TV series are proving popular and how tastes change over time. Stranger Things and Wednesday both have a young audience, so it’s good to see the youth leading the way. While we don’t yet know what will dominate 2023 in the TV landscape, we have some idea of which new movies might be the breakout hits.