How ‘Lucifer’ Topped ‘Squid Game’ on Nielsen’s 2021 Streaming Chart
The most streamed series of 2021 in the United States wasn’t Squid Game or You or WandaVision — though all of them ranked among the top original titles.
The overall title belongs not to any original show, but to an acquisition: Criminal Minds, the long-running former CBS procedural that now calls Netflix home. According to Nielsen, viewers spent almost 33.87 billion minutes watching the series’ 322 episodes last year. In fact, the seven most watched titles across Amazon’s Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu and Netflix are all acquired shows.
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The top original series is Lucifer, which clocked 18.34 billion minutes of viewing time for the year — which included the release of its sixth and final season in September. Squid Game, which became a word-of-mouth phenomenon after its Sept. 17 debut on Netflix, is second among originals with 16.43 billion minutes.
The Korean hit dominated Nielsen’s weekly rankings for several weeks after its release and easily led the fourth quarter among all original titles. But since Nielsen measures viewing of all episodes of a series in its streaming rankings, Lucifer — which had the bulk of its catalog available for the full year — ranks first among originals.
Both Criminal Minds and Lucifer came in well behind the 2020 streaming leaders: The Office (57.13 billion minutes) — which has since moved to Peacock — among acquired series and Ozark (30.46 billion) among originals. Audiences didn’t stream less content in 2021 than they did in 2020, but with more platforms establishing themselves and more programming than ever to watch, they did spread out more.
Netflix dominates the series rankings, but a few original shows from other streamers made the top 15. Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale (8.56 billion minutes) Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso (8.16 billion) and Disney+’s WandaVision (7.28 billion) all cracked the top 15. Disney+ also had 11 of the top 15 movies in Nielsen’s rankings, led by Luca at 10.59 billion minutes of viewing time.
Nielsen’s most streamed titles of 2021 are below. The rankings include shows and movies on Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix and Prime Video only.
Original Series
Rank | Title | Outlet | Episodes | Minutes viewed (millions) |
1 | Lucifer | Netflix | 93 | 18,342 |
2 | Squid Game | Netflix | 9 | 16,432 |
3 | The Great British Baking Show | Netflix | 75 | 13,636 |
4 | Virgin River | Netflix | 30 | 12,908 |
5 | Bridgerton | Netflix | 8 | 12,356 |
6 | You | Netflix | 30 | 11,124 |
7 | Cobra Kai | Netflix | 30 | 10,915 |
8 | The Crown | Netflix | 40 | 9,651 |
9 | Longmire | Netflix | 63 | 8,892 |
10 | The Handmaid’s Tale | Hulu | 46 | 8,564 |
11 | Outer Banks | Netflix | 20 | 8,301 |
12 | Ted Lasso | Apple TV+ | 22 | 8,161 |
13 | Maid | Netflix | 10 | 8,103 |
14 | WandaVision | Disney+ | 9 | 7,284 |
15 | The Witcher | Netflix | 16 | 7,067 |
Acquired Series
Rank | Title | Outlet | Episodes | Minutes viewed (millions) |
1 | Criminal Minds | Netflix | 322 | 33,865 |
2 | Cocomelon | Netflix | 15 | 33,278 |
3 | Grey’s Anatomy | Netflix | 382 | 32,625 |
4 | NCIS | Netflix | 354 | 29,529 |
5 | Heartland | Netflix | 215 | 20,410 |
6 | Manifest | Netflix | 42 | 19,923 |
7 | Supernatural | Netflix | 329 | 18,912 |
8 | Schitt’s Creek | Netflix | 80 | 18,062 |
9 | Gilmore Girls | Netflix | 153 | 14,704 |
10 | New Girl | Netflix | 146 | 14,680 |
11 | Shameless | Netflix | 134 | 14,406 |
12 | The Blacklist | Netflix | 169 | 12,137 |
13 | Bones | Prime/Hulu/Netflix | 246 | 11,012 |
14 | Seinfeld | Hulu/Netflix | 166 | 10,447 |
15 | The Walking Dead | Netflix | 153 | 10,377 |
Movies
Rank | Title | Outlet | Minutes viewed (millions) |
1 | Luca | Disney+ | 10,592 |
2 | Moana | Disney+ | 8,896 |
3 | Raya and the Last Dragon | Disney+ | 8,343 |
4 | Frozen II | Disney+ | 5,746 |
5 | Red Notice | Netflix | 5,528 |
6 | Frozen | Disney+ | 5,416 |
7 | Soul | Disney+ | 5,282 |
8 | Cruella | Disney+ | 5,174 |
9 | The Mitchells vs the Machines | Netflix | 4,517 |
10 | Jungle Cruise | Disney+ | 4,425 |
11 | Black Widow | Disney+ | 4,410 |
12 | The Tomorrow War | Prime Video | 4,049 |
13 | Coco | Disney+ | 4,009 |
14 | We Can Be Heroes | Netflix | 3,770 |
15 | Avengers: Endgame | Disney+ | 3,679 |
Source: Nielsen
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