‘Adolescence’ Is No. 1 on Netflix for First Half of 2025

Netflix has released its semiannual viewing report for the first half of 2025, with a breakout hit that originated outside the U.S. topping the series rankings.

It’s not Squid Game — at least not according to the way Netflix ranks its programming. Adolescence, the critically acclaimed U.K. limited series that earned 13 Emmy nominations earlier this week, takes the crown with 144.8 million views worldwide since its March 13 premiere.

Squid Game is not far behind, however. Season two of the Korean thriller, released in the last week of 2024, is second among all series with 117.3 million views from January to June. The third and final season is one spot back with 71.5 million views, despite having premiered just four days before the close of the half-year.

Netflix released its six-month data report, which it says covers some 95 billion hours of viewing worldwide (a slight increase from the second half of 2024) in conjunction with its second quarter earnings on Thursday.

As is now the case with most streamers, Netflix calculates views by dividing a TV season or movie’s total viewing time by its run time. So while season two of Squid Game accumulated about 285 million more hours of watch time than did Adolescence, the latter’s considerably shorter run time allowed it to rack up views faster.

That’s a recurring theme at the top of the six-month series chart. Ten of the top 15 shows in views have running times of less than six hours, and season three of Squid Game is just above that mark at six hours, eight minutes. The longest in the top 15 is Ginny & Georgia, whose third season clocks in at 10 hours, 34 minutes but racked up 48.1 million views in less than four weeks after its June 5 premiere.

Netflix also had two recently canceled shows near the top of its rankings: First-year series The Residence (33.3 million views) and Pulse (26.2 million) are 23rd and 30th on the series chart.

On the movies chart, the top five films (and eight of the top 10) for the first half of the year are Netflix originals. Back in Action leads the way with 164.7 million views, well ahead of Tyler Perry’s Straw (102.9 million). Back in Action also had about a five-month head start, as it debuted in mid-January, while Straw debuted on June 6.

Netflix’s top 15 series and films for the first half of 2025 are below.

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