{"id":427153,"date":"2026-01-21T06:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T06:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427153\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T06:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T06:31:15","slug":"what-we-watched-the-second-half-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427153\/","title":{"rendered":"What We Watched the Second Half of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

by FIlmInk Staff<\/p>\n

This report measures engagement by views (total hours viewed divided by runtime) and captures all viewing in the second half of 2025, representing 96B hours watched on Netflix.<\/p>\n

For the second half of 2025 we found that:<\/p>\n

Netflix Originals thrilled audiences everywhere<\/p>\n

KPop Demon Hunters<\/a> took the world by storm, breaking records as our most-watched title over a six-month period with 482M views. And it didn\u2019t stop there, with fans singing along to the KPop Demon Hunters Lyric Videos<\/a>, which pulled in 32M views.
\nThe return of Stranger Things<\/a> captivated audiences worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Season 5 became our second most-watched show in the half with 94M views.
\nAll five seasons of the beloved series, which debuted in 2016, ranked among the top 15 most-watched shows in the half, with a combined 275M views.<\/p>\n

Wednesday<\/a> was also loved by fans of all ages. Season 2 was the #1 most-watched show in the report with 124M views, with Season 1 ranking eighth with 47M views.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Non-English language titles remain widely watched<\/p>\n

Non-English language titles accounted for over a third of all viewing, with Korean, Spanish and Japanese shows and films among the most-watched.
\nSouth Korea had another strong half, with popular films including The Great Flood<\/a> (66M) and Love Untangled<\/a> (29M), and shows like Bon App\u00e9tit, Your Majesty<\/a> (38M), Genie, Make a Wish<\/a> Season 1 (23M), Culinary Class Wars<\/a> Season 2 (7M) and the concluding chapter of the thrilling series, Squid Game<\/a> Season 3 (79M), landing as the fourth most-watched show over the last six months.
\nFans also flocked to titles from Japan like Last Samurai Standing<\/a> Season 1 (21M) and third and final season of Alice in Borderland<\/a> (25M). The Elixir<\/a> (23M) from Indonesia and The Ba***ds of Bollywood<\/a> Season 1 (10M) from India also stood out.\u00a0
\nBuilding off its success in the first half, Scandinavian titles like The Asset<\/a> Season 1 (23M) and Mango<\/a> (21M) from Denmark were loved by audiences, while Troll 2<\/a> (44M), the sequel to our most popular non-English movie of all time, thrilled viewers in Norway and beyond.\u00a0
\nSpain had several popular shows including \u00c1ngela<\/a> (36M), Billionaires\u2019 Bunker<\/a> (28M), Two Graves<\/a> (26M) and Old Dog, New Tricks<\/a> Season 1 (15M). Members also enjoyed breakout hits like French Lover (33M) from France, Abandoned Man<\/a> (28M) and Old Money<\/a> Season 1 (17M) from Turkey and Babo: The Haftbefehl Story<\/a> (7M) from Germany.
\nBrazil drew in big audiences for new films and series like Caramelo<\/a> (53M) and Rulers of Fortune<\/a> Season 1 (22M). In the Mud<\/a> Season 1 (16M) from Argentina and The Guest<\/a> Season 1 (13M) from Colombia were also loved.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Netflix has something for everyone<\/p>\n

Comedies loved in the second half included films like Happy Gilmore 2<\/a> (135M) and Madea\u2019s Destination Wedding<\/a> (60M) and new and returning series like Man vs. Baby<\/a> Season 1 (44M), Nobody Wants This<\/a> Season 2 (30M) and Emily in Paris<\/a> Season 5 (30M).
\nAnime represented over 4% of all viewing in the second half, with audiences enjoying titles like DAN DA DAN<\/a> Season 2 (17M), My Melody & Kuromi<\/a> Season 1 (13M), SAKAMOTO DAYS<\/a> Season 1 (12M), Record of Ragnarok<\/a> Season 3 (11M) and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba<\/a> (11M).\u00a0
\nBook to screen adaptations of all types have found success on Netflix, including films like Frankenstein<\/a> (98M), My Oxford Year<\/a> (86M) and The Thursday Murder Club<\/a> (69M) and shows like My Life With the Walter Boys<\/a> Season 2 (39M) and The Hunting Wives<\/a> Season 1 (31M), both of which have been renewed for new seasons.\u00a0
\nDramas continue to perform well, with members drawn to titles such as UNTAMED<\/a> Season 1 (93M), A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE<\/a> (76M), The Beast in Me<\/a> (43M), Hostage<\/a> (37M) and Beauty in Black<\/a> Season 2 (24M).
\nDocumentaries intrigued audiences with stories like Unknown Number: The High School Catfish<\/a> (57M), Sean Combs: The Reckoning<\/a> (51M), The Perfect Neighbor<\/a> (49M), Amy Bradley Is Missing<\/a> (37M) and Being Eddie<\/a> (11M).\u00a0
\nNetflix remains the destination for kids and families with shows and films like Gabby\u2019s Dollhouse<\/a> (108M across seasons), Peppa Pig<\/a> (90M across seasons), Ms. Rachel<\/a> (73M across both seasons), In Your Dreams<\/a> (47M), Mark Rober\u2019s CrunchLabs<\/a> Season 1 (12M) and Sesame Street: Volume 1<\/a> (6M).<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

Here were our top 10 most-watched movies and shows from this report: \"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by FIlmInk Staff This report measures engagement by views (total hours viewed divided by runtime) and captures all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-427153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}