The final episode of Stranger Things premiered on the last day of 2025, but the momentum of one of Netflix’s biggest series ever carried well into this year.
The show was the most streamed series or movie in the United States in the first half of 2026, according to Nielsen. The ratings service released a rundown of the top shows and movies for the first half of the year on Tuesday.
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Stranger Things racked up 23.26 billion minutes of viewing from Dec. 29, 2025 to June 28, 2026, including a single-week record of 8.65 billion minutes for the week the series finale debuted. The series fell off of Nielsen’s weekly top 10 charts in early March after racking up 19.45 billion minutes of viewing, but people didn’t stop watching. In the 17 weeks since it last made the top 10, Stranger Things has drawn 3.81 billion additional minutes of watch time — an average of about 224 million per week.
The Pitt, whose second season grew by huge amounts, finished second among original series and third overall with 21.12 billion viewing minutes on HBO Max. The series made the weekly top 10 for 21 consecutive weeks. Bridgerton (17.15 billion minutes), Landman (12.4 billion) and The Lincoln Lawyer (10.53 billion) rounded out the top five originals.
Also of note on the original series chart: Love Island USA placed 13th with 7.62 billion minutes of viewing despite not premiering until early June. Almost 90 percent of its total watch time came in the four weeks after season eight premiered on Peacock.
Bluey, the most streamed show of the previous two years, once again leads the acquired series rankings (and is second overall) with 22.81 billion viewing minutes. Two other library shows, Grey’s Anatomy (20.41 billion) and The Big Bang Theory (20.4 billion), also had more than 20 billion minutes of watch time in the first half of the year. The three are the only shows to make the top 10 charts every week.
Nielsen separated kids movies and general audience films for its midyear rankings, but Zootopia 2 (6.54 billion minutes on Disney+) led all movies regardless of how they’re classified. KPop Demon Hunters also continued to draw viewers to the tune of 5.59 billion minutes. The Rip (4.43 billion minutes) led the general audience chart.
The top 20 streaming charts for the first half of 2026 are below.
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