A lot was made of Squid Game surpassing Bridgerton to become Netflix’s biggest show ever (according to Netflix), with a staggering 1.65 billion hours viewed in its first four weeks of release compared to only (“only”) 625 millions for the Shonda Rhimes-created series. But Squid Game wasn’t Netflix’s most popular title in 2021, not even close.
Deadline reports that “Lucifer, a drama that debuted on the Fox broadcast network before becoming a Netflix show in 2018, topped Nielsen’s list of the most-streamed original series of 2021 in the United States.” All that honest-to-god silliness paid off:
The 93 total episodes of the series netted more than 18.3 billion minutes of streaming during the year, according to the measurement firm’s year-end report. That put it well in front of Squid Game‘s 16.4 billion, but the Korean phenomenon had only nine episodes on Netflix in 2021.
Netflix dominated Nielsen’s chart of 2021’s most watched streaming shows; the first non-Netflix series is all the way down at number 10, with Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, followed by Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso at #12 and Disney+’s WandaVision. Every other show in the top 15? Netflix, including The Great British Bake Off at #3. It also took the top 12 spots among acquired shows, topped by 33.8 billion minutes for Criminal Minds.
Meanwhile, Disney+ is the Netflix of 2021’s most-viewed movies list, taking nine of the top 11 spots, including Luca with over 10 billion minutes and Moana and Raya and the Last Dragon with over eight billion minutes. The only non-Disney+ or Netflix title is Amazon’s surprisingly fun The Tomorrow War at #12. You can see the full charts here.
(Via Deadline)