More streamers than ever are making a dent in overall viewing as the industry continues to diversify - but the size of the subscriber base is still king, and that meant Netflix ( NASDAQ: NFLX ) dominated the list of most-streamed programs of the past year.
Disney ( NYSE: DIS ), though - which is catching up in terms of worldwide subscribers - made a couple of appearances on the overall list, and displayed its dominance in terms of most-watched streaming movies.
Stranger Things ( NFLX ) was the most-streamed program for all of 2022, according to Nielsen, with a hefty 52B minutes streamed - more than 36% more minutes than its next-closest rival, NCIS (38.1B minutes). That 52B minutes was the most since the COVID-19 pandemic pushed viewing of The Office to 57.1B minutes in 2020.
NCIS streams on Paramount+ ( PARA ) ( PARAA ), but also on Netflix ( NFLX ), which means Netflix had a foothold in the top four streamed programs of the year: Stranger Things, NCIS, toddler hit CoComelon (37.8B minutes) and Ozark (31.3B minutes).
Overall, Americans streamed more than 19.4M years in content last year - a 27% increase over the total of about 15M years in 2021, Nielsen noted.
And original content from the streaming companies grew to a new high in 2022, thanks in large part to Netflix originals (Netflix posted the 10 most-viewed original shows: Stranger Things, Ozark, Wednesday, Cobra Kai, Bridgerton, Virgin River, Dahmer, Love is Blind, Inventing Anna and The Crown).
Still, newer streamers are filling out their viewership with library content - and acquired programs made up 11 of the top 15 programs overall. Rounding out the top 10 behind Stranger Things, NCIS, CoComelon and Ozark: No. 5, Encanto ( DIS ), 27.4B minutes; No. 6, Grey's Anatomy ( NFLX ), 26.8B minutes; No. 7, Criminal Minds (various), 24.9B minutes; No. 8, Bluey ( DIS ), 21.1B minutes; No. 9, Gilmore Girls ( NFLX ), 20.8B minutes; and No. 10, Seinfeld ( NFLX ), 19.3B minutes.
Amazon Prime Video's ( NASDAQ: AMZN ) investments in originals landed it two shows on that chart: The Boys at No. 11 (10.6B minutes); and The Rings of Power at No. 15 (9.4B minutes). And HBO Max ( WBD ) put Friends on the acquired-programs list at No. 11 (14.54B minutes streamed).
Meanwhile, Disney ( DIS ) took 10 of the top 15 streaming-movie slots, including the top two with Encanto (seen 269M times) and Turning Red (11.427B minutes). Netflix ( NFLX ) had the only other movie to stream more than 10B minutes, with Sing 2 (11.347B minutes).
(Nielsen streaming ratings now incorporate viewing from seven major streamers: Amazon Prime Video ( AMZN ), Apple TV+ ( AAPL ), Disney+ ( DIS ), HBO Max ( WBD ), Hulu ( DIS ) ( CMCSA ), Netflix ( NFLX ) and Peacock ( CMCSA ).)
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Netflix dominates most-streamed programs of '22, as original programming grows