Netflix dominates 2022 most-watched streaming charts in US, Nielsen reveals

Nielsen has released streaming’s most-watched titles in 2022, revealing the most popular projects on Netflix.

The US ratings aggregator compiled the most successful TV series, and the one film, that made the top 15, and released the results on Thursday (26 January).

Netflix dominated the originals’ specific ranking. It filled the entire top 10 thanks to shows like Wednesday (18bn minutes), Cobra Kai (16.7bn minutes) and Bridgerton (14bn minutes).

But it was Stranger Things that topped the list with a streaming total of 52bn minutes.

The only two Amazon Prime Video shows to make the list were The Boys (10.6bn minutes) and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (9.4bn minutes), however, they both failed to make the overall list.

The separate list, which included non-original shows, revealed that crime procedural NCIS is Netflix’s most-watched licenced title, with 38.1bn minutes. This was followed by Cocomelon, a show for pre-schoolers, which managed 37.8b minutes.

Other licenced shows on the list include Grey’s Anatomy (26.8bn minutes), Gilmore Girls (20.8bn minutes) and Supernatural (18.8bn minutes), all of which are on Netflix, and The Simpsons, which was streamed for 15.9bn minutes on Disney Plus.

Impressively, Disney Plus also cracked the top five with Encanto, which, despite having a running time of 102 minutes, was viewed for 27.4bn minutes across the entire year.

By comparison, Ozark beat Encanto in the overall list, amassing 31.3bn minutes, but had 44 episodes released throughout 2022.

However, it’s also worth noting that Encanto was released at the end of 2021, so had a full year to make the top five, while Wednesday hit number 12 of the overall ranking after just two months.