The biggest streaming shows of this year are not necessarily the newest. They are not even the best-reviewed.
Hence, this list will be dominated by series with the best episode libraries, short runtimes, and a good repeat value.
Here are the shows Americans streamed most during the first half of this year.
1. Stranger Things
- Watched: 23.26 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 8.6
The final season brought many viewers back to Hawkins and encouraged them to watch older episodes again. That helped its 42 episodes beat shows with much larger libraries. Stranger Things is a supernatural horror mixed with real problems such as friendship, loss, and growing up. The later seasons became much bigger in scale, but the three-part final release gave its main characters enough time for a proper goodbye.
2. Bluey
- Watched: 22.81 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 9.3
This title fits complete stories about play, disappointment, and family life into roughly seven minutes. It trusts children with emotional ideas and lets parents be tired, distracted, and imperfect without making them villains.
3. The Pitt
- Watched: 21.12 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 8.9
No show on this list does more with less. Thirty episodes generated more than 21 billion minutes. Its emergency-room structure turns routine delays, bed shortages, and handoffs into suspense without needing a weekly catastrophe. Season two proved that the format is durable, not a one-season trick.
4. Grey’s Anatomy
- Watched: 20.41 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 7.6
With 467 episodes available during Nielsen’s measurement period, Grey’s Anatomy had a large advantage. Yet volume alone does not explain its hold. At its best, the show makes surgical ambition and personal need collide. This is especially in the Meredith-Cristina years. Later seasons repeat disasters and cycle through replacements unevenly.
5. The Big Bang Theory
- Watched: 20.40 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 8.1
This is a 281-episode comedy series. In the series, Sheldon and Amy’s gradual development will have you hooked up. Some jokes about women and social awkwardness have aged poorly, but the central cast develops a reliable chemistry that outlives the topical references.
6. SpongeBob SquarePants
- Watched: 16.89 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 8.2
The early Stephen Hillenburg-era stories from this series still work for children while hiding workplace satire for adults. The quality is not the same across all 336 episodes, and some later characters become more exaggerated. Still, Bikini Bottom remains one of TV’s most memorable cartoon worlds.
7. Bob’s Burgers
- Watched: 15.01 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 8.2
This is mainly a comedy series. The songs and strange people in these series are the major component of the comedy in the film. It has close to 300 episodes and can sometimes feel familiar, but the show stays warm and rarely becomes cruel.
8. PAW Patrol
- Watched: 13.56 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 6.1
The low IMDb score does not mean PAW Patrol has failed with its main audience. It shows how poorly preschool repetition can play to adult IMDB raters.
Each episode here follows a clean problem-dispatch-rescue pattern, with recognizable pups and machines taking defined roles.Young children often enjoy knowing what to expect and watching the same episodes again.
9. Criminal Minds
- Watched: 13.15 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 8.1
Each episode of Criminal Minds gives the team a dangerous criminal to find. The close bond between the main characters keeps the show connected across seasons. Reid, Prentiss, Garcia, and other team members give viewers a reason to keep coming back.
10. The Rookie
- Watched: 12.82 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 8.0
Nathan Fillion makes John Nolan’s choice to become a police officer later in life easier to believe. The series has grown into a larger team drama with police cases, humor, romance, and long-running threats. Some later stories become much bigger and less realistic than the early seasons.
11. Landman
- Watched: 12.40 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 8.2
Reaching 13th place with only 20 episodes shows how strongly viewers responded to Landman. Billy Bob Thornton makes long conversations about the oil business more entertaining than they might sound. His character, Tommy Norris, is always trying to solve expensive and dangerous problems. The oilfield setting and business pressure work well.
12. NCIS
- Watched: 11.87 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 7.8
NCIS pairs military investigations with workplace rituals, teasing, and a team that gradually becomes family. The Gibbs, DiNozzo, Ziva, and Abby years remain its clearest balance of character and case. Later line-up changes dilute that chemistry without destroying the format.
13. Law & Order
- Watched: 11.39 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 7.8
The police-investigation-first, courtroom-second structure is still one of television’s best dramatic designs. It lets a case change meaning when evidence becomes an argument, while New York locations and guest actors keep the world larger than the regular cast.
14. The Closer
- Watched: 11.35 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 7.8
Kyra Sedgwick’s Brenda Leigh Johnson is what makes The Closer stand out from many other crime shows. Brenda often appears calm and polite, but she uses that style to put pressure on suspects during interviews. The relationships and arguments inside her team can be just as interesting as the murder cases.
15. The First 48
- Watched: 11.33 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 8.2
Unlike other fictional crime dramas, The First 48 follows real homicide detectives. It shows you the unstable first hours of an investigation. Leads fail, witnesses hesitate, and some cases remain unresolved, giving the series a sense of uncertainty that fictional crime dramas cannot fully copy.
16. Young Sheldon
- Watched: 10.91 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 7.7
This prequel to The Big Bang Theory. Mary, George, Meemaw, Georgie, and Missy grow into full characters instead of only supporting Sheldon. His confidence and stubborn behavior is still annoying, but the family stories add warmth and emotion.
17. Friends
- Watched: 10.56 billion minutes
- IMDB Score: 8.8
The six main actors in Friends work extremely well together once the show finds its style. Chandler’s sarcasm, Ross’s panic, and Phoebe’s strange way of thinking give each character a different kind of humor. Some jokes and relationship choices now feel dated.