Netflix just posted its earnings, increasing subscribers somewhat significantly from 301.2 million to 325 million over the course of the year. That, of course, would swell if it did manage to acquire Warner Bros., as it means to.
There was a lot of information on the day of the report, but what stood out to me was a list of the most-watched series on Netflix from July 2025 to December 2025. There are some…interesting things on the list. Here it is:
- Wednesday season 2 – 124 million views
- Stranger Things season 5 – 94 million views
- Untamed season 1 – 93 million views
- Squid Game season 3 – 79 million views
- Stranger Things season 1 – 57 million views
- Monster: The Ed Gein story miniseries – 56 million views
- Sean Combs: The Reckoning documentary – 51 million views
- Wednesday season 1 – 47 million views
- Ms. Rachel season 1 – 47 million views
- Stranger Things season 2 – 45 million views
So yes, it is probably not the biggest surprise that six of these ten slots are taken up by the three most popular Netflix shows of all time, which all premiered new seasons during this period. Stranger Things season 5 might otherwise be higher as its last four episodes aired from Christmas to New Year’s Eve, so there was obviously going to be some spill into 2026. Though I still doubt it would have beaten Wednesday season 2.
The biggest surprise on the list? Untamed, a show that I actually had to look up because I forgot what it was. It’s the Eric Bana murder mystery that reviewed okay enough, but it managed to get absolutely incredible viewership to put it at #3 on the list and almost even beating out Stranger Things season 5, which is wild. It was meant to be a one-off, but it did so well that Netflix greenlit another season. Eric Bana will return for a new case, this time in a Hawaiian national park, which will certainly be a change of scenery. I think few may remember this show as one of the biggest Netflix success stories of the year, but yes, it was.
Despite being very poorly reviewed by fans and critics alike, Monster: The Ed Gein Story attracted viewers who just couldn’t miss the tale of the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper. The Monster series will continue with Lizzie Borden, played by Ella Beaty.
I used to see Cocomelon on these lists a lot for kid offerings, but now it’s been replaced by Netflix’s deal with Ms. Rachel, who drew a lot of press for her unrelenting focus on children in Gaza during the war there. She is the most popular children’s program on the service, which is no great surprise given her hundreds of millions of YouTube videos already.
So, what will take the crown in the first half of 2026 here?
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2026/01/21/the-10-most-watched-netflix-shows-of-2025-part-2-with-one-big-surprise/
