Bloomberg has published a list of the most-watched original streaming series in the first half of 2025, going by Nielsen data, with Netflix unsurprisingly taking the most slots of any streamer.
With Netflix releasing the second season of its South Korean drama very late last year and the third and final season at the end of June, combined their numbers delivered 15.1 billion minutes watched in the first half of 2025.
It was a clear winner with Amazon Prime’s launch of the third season of “Reacher” in March coming in second with 13.3 billion minutes watched. Third was “The Night Agent” which had its second season earlier this year and delivered 12.2 billion minutes watched.
“Ginny and Georgia” continues to be Netflix’s quietest success story with 10.2 billion minutes watched in fourth. Rounding out the top five was Apple TV’s “Severance” which had its second season and came in fifth with 9.3 billion minutes watched.
The remaining Top 10 were “1923” (8.5b), “The Pitt” (8.2b), “The Handmaid’s Tale” (8.2b), “You” (8.1b) and “Landman” (7.8b).
Even more interesting were the ones that didn’t make it. The list only includes streaming originals, not what Nielsen dubs ‘acquired’ (ie. cable & network series) which are catalogued.
Were it to include those, the author indicates both the new seasons of “The Last of Us” and “The White Lotus” would’ve made the list (in that order) and have pushed “You” and “Landman” out with just their Max streaming numbers alone. They didn’t indicate what numbers they would’ve ranked, but if HBO’s network airing numbers had also been included alongside the Max numbers then both would potentially be in the Top 5.
Sadly other streaming original titles simply didn’t pull in enough viewers to make the list – most notably the likes “Andor,” “The Wheel of Time” and “Daredevil: Born Again” all of which launched new seasons in the period. This was despite “Andor” making the Top 10 original list for all four weeks of its airing run – even taking the top spot on the final week.
Source: Bloomberg
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