Streaming Trends of 2025: Bluey Reigns Supreme, Stranger Things Finale Makes Waves
In 2025, Stranger Things was a hugely popular original series on streaming platforms, particularly during the five weeks when its final season premiered. Despite its success, the top spot for the year in streaming belonged to Bluey, a beloved children's show on Disney+ that garnered the most viewing time according to Nielsen's streaming ratings. Bluey held the lead for the second consecutive year, followed by Grey's Anatomy with its extensive episode library on Netflix and Hulu, and then Stranger Things.
Nielsen reported that U.S. viewers consumed a remarkable 16.7 trillion minutes of content on streaming platforms in 2025, marking a 19% increase from the previous year. This massive amount of viewing time translates to 31.7 million years of linear time. Stranger Things' final season premiered on Nov. 26 and accumulated 25.1 billion viewing minutes in the last five weeks of the year, surpassing other original shows. Squid Game followed closely behind with 22.41 billion minutes of watch time.
The most streamed movie of 2025 was Netflix and Sony's KPop Demon Hunters, which amassed 20.55 billion viewing minutes, more than double the next most-watched film, Moana 2. Nielsen introduced separate rankings for kids' films and general interest movies, with Happy Gilmore 2 leading the latter category. The year-end rankings, known as the ARTEYs, honored Seth MacFarlane with the "Streaming Icon" award for his significant contribution to streaming entertainment.
Nielsen recognized The Pitt as the biggest new streaming series of the year, garnering 11.4 billion viewing minutes on HBO Max. The Residence and other new original shows on Netflix also made an impact in the streaming landscape. Gunsmoke, a classic western series, emerged as the most binged title of the year, with 22.5 billion minutes of watch time across various streaming platforms.
Overall, the top 10 streaming titles of 2025, as determined by Nielsen, showcased the diverse range of content that captivated audiences throughout the year.