We’re over halfway through 2025, and Apple TV+ by all appearances is having its best year ever. But one of the most important metrics in streaming has just been revealed: the Nielsen top 10. Here’s the full list of the 10 biggest shows in streaming this year, and how Apple TV+ fared.
Nielsen reveals top 10 streaming shows of 2025 so far
Last night in his Screentime latest newsletter, Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw revealed the Nielsen top 10 shows of 2025 through the first half of the year.
Here’s the full list:
Rank Program Platform Millions of minutes 1 Squid Game Netflix 15,074 2 Reacher Prime Video 13,313 3 The Night Agent Netflix 12,219 4 Ginny & Georgia Netflix 10,201 5 Severance Apple TV+ 9,275 6 1923 Paramount+ 8,536 7 The Pitt Max 8,227 8 The Handmaid’s Tale Hulu 8,165 9 You Netflix 8,097 10 Landman Paramount+ 7,826
There is an important caveat that should be noted, which Shaw points out.
Two of the biggest hits this year in streaming have been The White Lotus and The Last of Us. But because those shows premiered on HBO’s linear network, they’re not counted by Nielsen as “streaming” shows—despite likely having their largest audience in streaming.
Severance ranks #5 among all streaming shows in 2025
Caveat aside, Severance’s presence at number 5 on the list affirms once more how big a hit it was for Apple TV+.
Various firms seek to rank streaming viewership in their own ways, but Nielsen is generally seen as one of the most accurate. And for Severance to rank so highly was a big challenge for one main reason: subscriber numbers.
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