Top 10 streaming shows of 2025: Netflix loses its grip, Amazon advances, Apple breaks in
The third season of Netflix's "The Squid Game" has become the most-watched original series on streaming services in the first half of 2025, surpassing Amazon's "Reacher" in the final week.
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Though the final season of "The Squid Game" beat Amazon's "Reacher," it was the success of "Reacher" that showed Prime Video's audience clearly gravitated toward action films. The series is part of Amazon's broader strategy, with "The Guys," "Jack Ryan" and fantasy epics like "The Wheel of Time" and "Rings of Power" standing side by side.
Among the surprises of the year, however, is the Apple TV+ series Severance making it into the top five. The project, with its unconventional concept and dark atmosphere, showed that Apple is capable of not just a noisy launch, but of holding the audience's attention steadily - and competing on equal footing.
Nielsen data analysis shows: Netflix is no longer the only giant. Despite three of the top four positions, its share of the most popular shows has dropped from 80% in 2021 to about 50% in 2025. And by the looks of it - it's a steady trend.
The 10 most popular streaming shows of 2025. Illustration: Nielsen
Competition has grown - not in breadth, but in depth. Netflix is now one of seven or eight, not three. Amazon, Apple, HBO Max, Hulu, and Paramount+ all have series that can storm the charts.
HBO has three hits under its belt - "One of Us," "White Lotus" and "Pitt." But two of them are not in the Nielsen top 10 only because of a formal classification: since the shows were first released on a linear channel, they are considered "acquired". In fact - they would have been in the top 10.
Nevertheless, Netflix has yet to be overtaken by anyone in terms of total views. Its content and audience volumes are still higher than Disney+, Hulu and Peacock combined.
The growth in popularity of free streaming from 2023-2025. Illustration: Nielsen
But the real threat to Netflix isn't even Apple and Amazon, but free platforms like YouTube, Roku Channel and Tubi. Despite a 6% overall growth in streaming, Netflix's share hasn't increased. Meanwhile, ad-supported free services continue to pull audiences away. YouTube alone has 12.5% of views. And that's more than Amazon, HBO Max and Disney+ combined.
Source: Bloomberg