A study revealed the most-streamed show on Netflix, and we have a feeling you won’t be surprised
Thanks to the magic of Netflix, we now have round-the-clock access to thousands of TV shows. And while all that choice is definitely exciting, it doesn’t make deciding what to watch any easier. More often than not, we end up curling up on the couch with one of our old favorites. And now, thanks to a new report, we know that a lot of people are streaming the exact same thing.
According to IndieWire, a new Nielsen report published in The Wall Street Journal on April 24th found that Netflix users watched The Office more than any other series on the platform. Not even Friends got more views (although it did come in second). The other top eight most-streamed shows were Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Orange Is the New Black, Shameless (which was tied with OItNB), Supernatural, Parks and Recreation, and Ozark.
Based on the number of hours we’ve devoted to the antics at Dunder Mifflin, we’re not that surprised that The Office reigned supreme—but it’s still impressive. It looks like Michael Scott was right when he declared, “I’m Beyoncé always.”
However, in a statement to HelloGiggles via email, Netflix notes that these results are at least a little misleading: The more seasons of a show there are, the more hours there are of it to watch…which can make longer-running shows appear more popular than shorter-running ones.
"Looking at overall watch time skews towards titles with many seasons," a PR person for the platform wrote. "Most Netflix originals have three or fewer seasons at most. It's why we focus on the individual shows or films members watch, as opposed to how much time they spend on one series versus another. And if you look at most watched titles, Netflix originals accounted for 10 out of 10 in the last quarter, or 21 out of the top 25,"
It’s also worth noting that our days of marathoning The Office on Netflix could be in jeopardy, though. CNBC Newsnotes that NBCUniversal, which owns the series, is planning to release its own streaming service in 2020. In January, NBC Entertainment co-chairman George Cheeks told The Hollywood Reporter that the licensing agreement for the show “is up in a couple years,” meaning that NBC could decide to pull The Office from Netflix when that happens. It’s not yet clear if that will happen, but for now, it’s the perfect reason to keep it in our queues.
Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have some streaming to do.