Most-Watched TV Series of 2025-26 Across Streaming, Broadcast and Cable: ‘Stranger Things’ Leads This Season’s Rankers
“Stranger Things” ended its final season with an average of 32.9 million viewers, easily making it the most-watched series of the just concluded 2025-2026 TV season. The Netflix thriller averaged that number over 35 days, per Nielsen’s multiplatform ranker.
Nielsen introduced the multiplatform data last year, finally giving us an apples-to-apples comparison of how shows are doing on streaming vs. linear — and how those broadcast shows are benefiting via time-shifted viewing on their streaming partner. This chart doesn’t include sports series like “Sunday Night Football,” which would still be No. 1 (at least, in linear), but does give us a more interesting look at what truly are the most-watched regular series of the year.
Besides “Stranger Things,” that also meant Netflix’s “His & Hers.” Then came the most-watched broadcast show of the year: CBS’ “Marshals,” the first broadcast show in the Taylor Sheridan “Yellowstone” universe, which posts 20.7 million viewers.
Keep in mind, this chart only goes to mid-April, so some of the numbers for new shows still airing fresh episodes in May could decrease. But as the season winds down, CBS also has “Tracker” in the top 10, while ABC has “High Potential,” HBO Max has “The Pitt” and Paramount+ has “Landman.” The rest of the top 10 are Netflix shows.
Stay tuned, Variety will expand this chart and dissect the highs and lows shortly.
America’s most-watched non-sports TV series of the 2025-2026 season are …
2012-2013 TV season
2013-2014 TV season
2014-2015 TV season
2015-2016 TV season
2016-2017 TV season
2017-2018 TV season
2018-2019 TV season
2019-2020 TV season
2020-2021 TV season
2021-2022 TV season
2022-2023 TV season
2023-2024 TV season
2024-2025 TV season
Nielsen introduced the multiplatform data last year, finally giving us an apples-to-apples comparison of how shows are doing on streaming vs. linear — and how those broadcast shows are benefiting via time-shifted viewing on their streaming partner. This chart doesn’t include sports series like “Sunday Night Football,” which would still be No. 1 (at least, in linear), but does give us a more interesting look at what truly are the most-watched regular series of the year.
Besides “Stranger Things,” that also meant Netflix’s “His & Hers.” Then came the most-watched broadcast show of the year: CBS’ “Marshals,” the first broadcast show in the Taylor Sheridan “Yellowstone” universe, which posts 20.7 million viewers.
Keep in mind, this chart only goes to mid-April, so some of the numbers for new shows still airing fresh episodes in May could decrease. But as the season winds down, CBS also has “Tracker” in the top 10, while ABC has “High Potential,” HBO Max has “The Pitt” and Paramount+ has “Landman.” The rest of the top 10 are Netflix shows.
Stay tuned, Variety will expand this chart and dissect the highs and lows shortly.
America’s most-watched non-sports TV series of the 2025-2026 season are …
2012-2013 TV season
2013-2014 TV season
2014-2015 TV season
2015-2016 TV season
2016-2017 TV season
2017-2018 TV season
2018-2019 TV season
2019-2020 TV season
2020-2021 TV season
2021-2022 TV season
2022-2023 TV season
2023-2024 TV season
2024-2025 TV season