Stranger Things Dominated as the Most-Streamed Series of 2022 — View Complete Nielsen Rankings

Eleven was very much No. 1 when it came to the things you streamed in 2022.

Nielsen on Thursday morning revealed its rankings of the most-viewed series and movies for the year gone by, and Netflix’s Stranger Things dominated two Top 15 charts: streaming originals, and streaming overall (both detailed below).

In total, Nielsen reports, “Americans streamed more than 19.4 million years of content last year, up 27 percent from 2021.” Driving that growth, Nielsen says, was the steady influx of original series as opposed to acquired content. “Viewing minutes for top-performing original content dramatically outpaced top-performing acquired content,” says the measurement service.

As detailed below, audiences viewed 52 billion minutes of Stranger Things in 2022, the highest yearly total since COVID lockdowns led audiences to binge 57.1. billion minutes of The Office back in 2020. (Worth noting, though, is that there are only 34 episodes of Stranger Things, versus 192 library episodes of The Office.)

The most-watched movie, Encanto, amassed 27.4 million minutes over the full year (since it was released in December 2021). That equates to it being watched 269 million times. And you parents out there only thought it felt like that many!

Review the four Top 15 charts below and weigh in on any surprise findings!