--- title: Netflix's Most-Watched Shows of Last Year: 7 Takeaways description: As we head into 2020, here's what the report tells us about the coming decade for Netflix in particular and television in general. canonical: https://time.com/5758468/netflix-most-watched-shows-2019-takeaways/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-01-03T21:39:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:56:20.752Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 7 Takeaways From Netflix's Most-Watched Shows of Last Year og:description: What the report does—and doesn't—suggest about the coming decade for Netflix in particular and television in general og:url: https://time.com/5758468/netflix-most-watched-shows-2019-takeaways/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b71119daeb0ca06/698a03a5b3fce3724e0c59f1/stranger-things-cast-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: stranger things og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 7 Takeaways From Netflix's Most-Watched Shows of Last Year twitter:description: What the report does—and doesn't—suggest about the coming decade for Netflix in particular and television in general twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b71119daeb0ca06/698a03a5b3fce3724e0c59f1/stranger-things-cast-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Netflix's Most-Watched Shows of Last Year Tell Us About TV in the 2020s  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Jan 3, 2020 9:39 PM CUT  (L-R) Noah Schnapp, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Sadie Sink and Caleb McLaughlin in Stranger Things. (L-R) Noah Schnapp, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Sadie Sink and Caleb McLaughlin in Stranger Things.Netflix  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Jan 3, 2020 9:39 PM CUT Another year in the streaming trenches is in the books, and Netflix is eager to start 2020 by declaring itself a winner. At the end of December, the industry leader—which weathered the launches of Disney+ and Apple TV+ in 2019 and will soon face additional competition from HBO Max and NBCUniversal’s Peacock—[released a handful of top 10 lists](https://deadline.com/2019/12/murder-mystery-stranger-things-3-netflix-list-of-most-popular-movies-tv-series-of-2019-the-witcher-you-netflix-what-we-watched-2019-1202818337/ "undefined") enumerating its most popular new programming of the year. These rankings are as fascinating as they are limited by Netflix’s perennially confusing metrics and [highly selective approach](https://time.com/5697802/most-popular-shows-movies-netflix/ "undefined") to sharing audience data. As we head into yet another year of Peak TV, it’s worth taking stock of what the report does and doesn’t tell us about the coming decade for Netflix in particular—and television in general. Before we get started, I feel compelled to issue the standard disclaimer about statistics that come straight from Netflix: They’re not verified by a third party, and even if they are all technically accurate, these numbers can be misleading. Why, for example, are _Friends_ and _The Office_—two of the platform’s most consistent top performers, both of which are [departing for other services](https://nypost.com/2020/01/01/friends-has-left-netflix-and-the-office-is-next/ "undefined")—absent from these lists? Not because their popularity dipped in 2019, but because they weren’t new releases last year. Top 10 lists that included viewership of older movies and TV shows would, presumably, look pretty different. Also keep in mind that for the purposes of this report, Netflix defined a household as having “watched” a title if it’s seen [as little as two minutes](https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/netflix-most-popular-tv-series-2019-stranger-things-the-witcher-when-they-see-us-1203453295/ "undefined") of it. Finally, rankings are not the same thing as hard viewership numbers—and rankings for shows that have been on the service for less than 28 days (in this case, _You_ season 2, _The Witcher_ and the Michael Bay movie _6 Underground_, among other top performers) are based on projections. With all that out of the way, let’s get into it. ## **Just because no one’s talking about a Netflix original, doesn’t mean it isn’t popular**  The Umbrella Academy Christos Kalohoridis—Netflix I’ll admit it: When I saw that Netflix’s most-watched new release of 2019 was _Murder Mystery_, it took me a minute to recall that the generically titled movie was in fact a comedy flick starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. While critics [almost unanimously](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/murder-mystery/critic-reviews "undefined") dismissed it as more bland Sandler-factory fare and it’s more likely to take home a Golden Raspberry than an Oscar this awards season, the film also failed to generate the kind of controversy that kept, say, _Joker_ in the headlines for months. Yet [according to Netflix](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/10/netflix-viewing-records-umbrella-academy-stranger-things-murder-mystery "undefined"), 73 million households had viewed it by the end of September. Among the service’s top TV releases of the year were _The Umbrella Academy_ and _Raising Dion_, both comic-book adaptations that failed to capture the attention of the chattering classes. And who would have predicted that _Jailbirds_, a sort of reality-TV _Orange Is the New Black_ filmed at Sacramento County Jail, would be second only to _Tidying Up With Marie Kondo_ as the year’s most-watched reality show? It isn’t news that cultural products can thrive without critics’ endorsements—or even, in the case of broadcast-TV juggernauts like _The Big Bang Theory_ and Dick Wolf’s Chicago franchise, much pop-culture visibility. But streaming services have always seemed more reliant than traditional TV on word of mouth, on social media in particular, to help viewers cut through their glut of originals. This year’s Netflix top 10 lists suggest that we shouldn’t underestimate the power of the algorithm. ## **Expensive sci-fi and fantasy spectacles are paying off**  Henry Cavill in 'The Witcher' Katalin Vermes/Netflix Netflix’s three most-watched new TV seasons of 2019—_Stranger Things 3_ and the debuts of _The Witcher_ and _The Umbrella Academy_—have two things in common: they’re genre shows and they cost a ton of money to make. It probably doesn’t hurt, either, that the latter two were adapted from franchises that were already popular in other media. While they range in quality from [decent](https://time.com/5617328/stranger-things-season-3-review/ "undefined") to [terrible](https://time.com/5752962/netflix-witcher-review/ "undefined"), the voracity of fan culture renders all of these series effectively critic-proof—which is good news for Netflix, if not for those of us who think shows without supernatural creatures deserve nice production values too. ## **Yes, lots of subscribers are watching trash. But ambitious programming is flourishing, too**  Jharrel Jerome in 'When They See Us.' Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix Still, viewers who come to Netflix for the kind of movies and shows that win awards and top critics’ best-of lists shouldn’t despair yet. _When They See Us_ and _Unbelievable_—two thoughtful, serious and beautifully made miniseries that dramatized real-life failures of the criminal justice system—were among the service’s most-watched series of 2019\. Macho entertainments of the type that dominate the box office are sharing space on these lists with other smart, often diverse, female-driven dramas (_You_), comedies (_Dead to Me_), documentaries (Beyoncé’s _HOMECOMING_) and reality hits (_Marie Kondo_, _Jailbirds_). And Netflix claims that Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece _The Irishman_ was its fifth-most-popular new release of the year across mediums. That’s heartening for those of us who fear that competition will force the service to become a franchise factory like Disney, even if I still wish Netflix’s best new show of 2019, _Russian Doll_, had cracked the top 10. ## **Losing Disney movies is still going to hurt**  Incredibles 2 Disney Speaking of Disney, a handful of the mega-brand’s blockbusters [remained on Netflix](https://www.cnet.com/how-to/disney-plus-learn-when-missing-star-wars-marvel-movies-and-more-are-coming/ "undefined") throughout 2019 thanks to old licensing agreements. That explains the presence of two new Disney films, _The Incredibles 2_ and _Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2_, as well as Sony Pictures’ Marvel collaboration _Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse_, among the service’s 10 most-watched new movie releases of 2019\. And remember: the list doesn’t even account for the relative popularity of any Disney titles on Netflix that made their streaming debuts _before_ last January. ## **The children are Netflix’s future—and the company knows it**  The kids of Stranger Things Season 3 Netflix Since it can’t count on licensed Disney titles to hold kids’ attention in the long run, the race is on for Netflix to develop its own essential children’s, teen and family programming. Those efforts are already paying off. If you don’t have young children, you might not have heard of _Mighty Little Bheem_; it’s a cute, silly, computer-animated kiddie confection from Netflix India that was this year’s most-streamed new international release among subscribers in the U.S. Shows such as _Stranger Things_, _The Dark Crystal_, _Nailed It!_ and _Raising Dion_ have become cross-generational hits. And the service has continued to cement its hold on teens and young adults, with youth-focused offerings like _You_, _The Umbrella Academy_, _Sex Education_ and the controversial _13 Reasons Why_, as well as _Stranger Things_, all ranking in the top 10 new series of 2019\. Meanwhile, the success of _HOMECOMING_, the festival-scam doc _FYRE_ and _Rhythm + Flow_—the hip-hop reality competition starring Cardi B, Chance the Rapper and T.I.—suggest that Netflix is making inroads into music programming aimed at the post-MTV generation. ## **True crime wasn’t just a trend**  'Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile' Brian Douglas Zac Efron in Half a decade ago, when _Serial_, _The Jinx_ and _Making a Murderer_ hijacked the cultural conversation, the mainstreaming of true-crime narratives seemed like a fad. But the hunger for these stories has shown no signs of ebbing, even if they’ve proliferated to the extent that no single show or podcast can dominate our attention for long. True crime and its lightly fictionalized cousins—like Bonnie-and-Clyde riff _The Highwaymen_ and Ted Bundy biopic _Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile_, two Netflix movies that were among the site’s 10 most-watched new releases—proved massively popular in 2019\. It was the service’s top documentary program of the year, _Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes_, that kicked off the recent [Bundy-mania](https://theoutline.com/post/7040/ted-bundy-tapes-zac-efron-essay?zd=1&zi=gvbwog4r "undefined") (which will continue this month with the Amazon original docuseries _Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer)_. Bracingly bizarre docs, from _Abducted in Plain Sight_ (a rare non-Netflix Original to appear on these lists) to _Don’t F\*\*k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer_, have not only sucked in heaps of viewers, but also brought them to social media to share their “ugh,” “omg” and “wtf” reactions. Even _The Irishman_ is [based on a nonfiction book](https://time.com/5715408/irishman-true-story-movie/ "undefined"). Especially considering that this is one arena in which the family-focused Disney+ can’t compete, Netflix is sure to keep the true-crime tap flowing. ## **Women and people of color are the future—but also the present—of stand-up comedy**  Wanda Sykes in her Netflix standup special Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix It is a fact universally acknowledged that Netflix has changed the comedy game over the past few years, [launching a new golden age of stand-up](https://www.economist.com/prospero/2018/07/24/netflix-is-driving-stand-up-comedys-second-boom "undefined") and playing host to some of the form’s most talked-about personalities, from Dave Chappelle (whose controversial special _Sticks & Stones_ was its most-watched new comedy special of 2019) to Hannah Gadsby. And while it’s been apparent for a while that the service is paying particular attention to rising stars who happen to be women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community, we haven’t necessarily known how successful that strategy has been with viewers until now. Of the top 10 new Netflix comedy specials of last year, only two (Jeff Dunham’s _Beside Himself_ and Bill Burr’s _Paper Tiger_) featured white men. The remainder of the list—which includes Chappelle, Ken Jeong, Wanda Sykes, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, Amy Schumer, Aziz Ansari, Mike Epps and Kevin Hart—represents the cornucopia of identities and styles that have become the new normal in stand-up comedy. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5758468/netflix-most-watched-shows-2019-takeaways/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5758468/netflix-most-watched-shows-2019-takeaways/"},"headline":"What Netflix's Most-Watched Shows of Last Year Tell Us About TV in the 2020s","datePublished":"2020-01-03T21:39:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:56:20.752Z","description":"As we head into 2020, here's what the report does—and doesn't—suggest about the coming decade for Netflix in particular and television in general","url":"https://time.com/5758468/netflix-most-watched-shows-2019-takeaways/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b71119daeb0ca06/698a03a5b3fce3724e0c59f1/stranger-things-cast-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b71119daeb0ca06/698a03a5b3fce3724e0c59f1/stranger-things-cast-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"stranger things","caption":"stranger things","creditText":"Netflix","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5758468/netflix-most-watched-shows-2019-takeaways/","name":"What Netflix's Most-Watched Shows of Last Year Tell Us About TV in the 2020s"}}]}] ```