Criminal Minds and Lucifer Are Among 2021's Most Streamed Shows

Step aside, The Office: The U.S. has a new most streamed show for 2021. Criminal Minds has overtaken the Steve Carell sitcom as last year's most streamed program in the U.S., according to new data from Nielsen. U.S. viewers watched nearly 34 billion minutes of the drama's 332 episodes on Netflix, a slight dip from the 35.4 billion minutes streamed in 2020 but still good enough for the top spot. Netflix also was the home of the most watched original series on a streaming service in 2021, Lucifer, which aired its final season last year, making it the most watched original series on a streaming service last year, with 18.3 billion minutes streamed. The data measures the popularity of shows streamed in 2021 across platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and Disney+, highlighting the popularity of library titles that make up huge chunks of streaming viewership. With 221.8 Million Global Subscribers, Netflix Still Has ‘Tremendous Room for Growth’ Among acquired series, the children’s show Cocomelon was a close second to Criminal Minds, with Netflix U.S. viewers watching a little over 33 billion minutes. And Grey’s Anatomy was once again a heavy hitter for Netflix as the long-running drama, which had 382 episodes available to stream, was watched for more than 32.6 billion minutes last year, making it No. 3 overall. The acquired top 10 streaming list also included NCIS (Netflix, 29.5 billion minutes streamed), Heartland (Netflix, 20.4 billion minutes), Manifest (19.9 billion minutes, which is why Netflix saved the show after NBC canceled it), Supernatural (Netflix, 18.9 billion minutes), Schitt's Creek (Netflix, 18.1 billion minutes), Gilmore Girls (Netflix, 14.7 billion minutes) and New Girl (Netflix, 14.7 billion minutes). Library content continues to be valuable for Netflix, with the streamer taking 14 of the top 15 most streamed acquired spots. Bones (Amazon and Hulu; 11.0 billion minutes) was the only non-Netflix series to make the top 15. The Office was 2020’s most streamed show, with U.S. viewers watching more than 57.1 billion minutes of the 192-episode series, highlighting why NBCUniversal pulled out all the stops when the show migrated from Netflix to its own streaming service, Peacock, last January. Squid Game is a winner While library shows dominated in terms of total minutes watched, the data shows that original series can pay off, even with a lower episode count than the acquired shows, some of which have a library of 300-plus episodes. The South Korean drama Squid Game, which had $900 million in "impact value" for Netflix, only has nine episodes so far but brought in more than 16 billion minutes viewed last year, No. 2 among all streaming originals. The audience for the series also skewed younger than the Netflix average, as 37% of viewers were 18-34. Netflix, the largest streaming service with 221.8 million global subscribers, had nine of the top 10 original shows on streaming in 2021, with Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale (8.6 billion minutes) sneaking into the 10th spot. U.S. viewers spent 13.6 billion minutes watching The Great British Baking Show; Virgin River (12.9 billion minutes) and Bridgerton (12.4 billion) also proved popular with subscribers. International content proved popular for streamers, with The Great British Baking Show, Luca and Squid Game all attracting large viewerships. While Netflix may have dominated in both originals and acquired programming, Disney+ ruled the movie scene. Its 2021 film Luca was watched for nearly 10.6 billion minutes. The streamer had eight of the top 10 most streamed movies on subscription video-on-demand services in 2021, including Moana (8.9 billion minutes), Raya and the Last Dragon (8.3 billion minutes) and Frozen II (5.7 billion minutes). Netflix’s Red Notice (5.5 billion minutes) and Mitchells vs. The Machines (4.5 billion minutes) also made the list. Shonda Rhimes on Bridgerton Season 2 and Whether It’s Time to End Grey’s Anatomy