Now that the full-year numbers are in, the state of the U.S. market for streaming original TV shows and movies in 2025 can be truly understood.
And as Luminate explores in depth in its newly released “Film & TV Year-End Report,” the previous 12 months saw no shortage of surprising trends that emerged. Here’s five of the biggest surprises discussed in the latest episode of the Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” featuring a conversation with the report’s lead author, Luminate analyst Tyler Aquilina.
The total volume of original content consumption on the leading streaming platforms in the U.S. spiked over 2024. After plateauing for several consecutive years between 21 and 22 billion hours watched, 2025 saw a sizable 18% year-over-year jump—21% by series alone. “What was really notable about 2025 was that there were just more massive streaming hits across more platforms than we’ve seen in the past,” said Aquilina, citing examples including HBO Max’s “The Pitt” and Paramount Plus’ “Landman.”
The most-watched series of the year for the first time was neither on Netflix nor scripted. That honor goes to “Love Island USA,” which towered over the competition at approximately 18 billion minutes watched. It’s all the more impressive considering Peacock has a far smaller distribution footprint than Netflix.
Not on the list: the buzzworthy “Heated Rivalry,” which as an acquisition, isn’t technically an original series and didn’t gather significant ratings steam for HBO Max until this year. “The numbers on ‘Heated Rivalry,’ they are good for the type of show that it is, but that was just nowhere close to top 10 levels in terms of the engagement that it’s generating,” said Aquilina.
Production volume of unscripted content plunged across nearly all subgenres, from true crime to cooking shows. Across linear and streaming combined, there was a massive 31% decline in the number of unscripted programs ordered. The only subgenre that managed to slightly increase volume in 2025 were sports-themed docuseries.
While Netflix is still dominant, its streaming rivals made significant strides in 2025 to close the gap. What may be most remarkable about the original-content-viewing spike is that it wasn’t driven by Netflix. After seeing its market share hold at 63% in 2023 and 2024, Netflix dropped to 59% in 2025 as rivals like Prime Video, Apple TV and HBO Max inched forward. The leading streaming service had less entries in the top 10 and 20 hits of the year than before.
Original streaming movies improved relative to theatrically released movies in the SVOD window. While in previous years, the top 10 list of the most watched movies of the year boasted nine theatricals, in 2025, four different Netflix original films managed to hold their own among the top ranked titles.
(Pictured: “The Pitt”)
“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.
English (US) ·