The 25 Most Watched Netflix Series in the Second Half of 2024, According to Netflix

Netflix rarely lets us peek behind the curtain at its viewership numbers, but twice a year, it releases What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report, detailing which of its shows were watched the most around the globe over a six-month period. The most recent edition, released in late February, covers the time from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2024.

The report lists thousands of seasons of TV series by two metrics: total hours watched and total views, which is defined by Netflix as total hours watched divided by a show's runtime. For the purpose of determining a Top 25 of the most-watched Netflix series of the second half of 2024, we ranked our list by total views.

What We Watched isn't a perfect indicator of what's popular on Netflix, however. Shows released early in the designated time period have the advantage of having a longer eligible run, while shows released later in the time period do not. For example, a show released in July will have six months of data, while a show released in December will only have one. Keep that in mind while digesting the numbers.

The results are interesting, and the trends are fairly different from the most-watched Netflix series of the first half of 2024, showing off Netflix's versatility. And while the last report's No. 1 show was released early in its data range, this time around the No. 1 premiered much, much later. Can you guess what No. 1 is?

Let's start the list with a bit of a surprise! The French series The Cage, about an amateur brawler making his way to the UFC, drew 23.1 million views, beating to a pulp more well-known Netflix titles like Virgin River Season 6, A Man on the Inside Season 1, and The Diplomat Season 2. 

The most popular licensed TV series on Netflix in the second half of 2024 was the 2005 Fox action series Prison Break, and it wasn't close. The drama, about two brothers who (duh) escape from a prison after one is set up by a shady organization, is the only non-Netflix series to appear in the Top 25, and four of its five seasons made the Top 50. Season 2 had 23.8 million views.

The final season of the award-winning animated series Arcane wasn't as popular as Season 1, but it was still big enough to land at No. 23 on the list with 23.9 million views and claim the highest spot on this list for an animated series. (Peppa Pig Season 6 was No. 27.) That said, with the rumored $250 million budget for both seasons of Arcane, Netflix was probably hoping for more.

The final season of Vikings: Valhalla, a spin-off of History Channel's popular Vikings, sits at No. 22 with 24.5 million views. The series gets bonus points for consistency; Season 2 made the first half of 2023's report at No. 22 as well. Skol! 

The first half of Tyler Perry's new series Beauty in Black drew 24.9 million views. The show follows an exotic dancer (Taylor Polidore Williams) who becomes entangled with a family that runs a cosmetics empire and has a trafficking scheme on the side. It only hit No. 21 with a sizzling plot like that? C'mon, people!

Wednesday's Emma Myers stars as a high school student who takes matters into her own hands when she feels that the killing of a fellow student was insufficiently investigated in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. The series received 25.4 million views on Netflix, and it would have been higher had the series not been released on different networks in England, Ireland, Australia, and more.

Worst Ex Ever, a series that details some truly horrific exes but somehow did not feature my exes, is one of two true-crime docuseries on this list, sitting at No. 19 with 26.1 million views. It outpaced the most recent season of its sibling series, Worst Roommate Ever, which recorded just over 20 million views in all of 2024. What would happen if your roommate were your... ex?!? Someone get me the phone number of the Department of Netflix True Crime!

You aren't alone if you hadn't heard of Deceitful Love before now, but the Italian series was popular internationally, drawing 27.2 million views, which was good enough for No. 18 on the list. Based on the British miniseries Gold Digger, it follows an older woman who begins a relationship with a much younger man who might be in it is definitely in it for the money.

The fourth and final season of The Umbrella Academy — an adaptation of a graphic novel about a dysfunctional family of superpowered orphans — was by far the worst-reviewed season of the series, but fans still showed up to see it off. It got 27.4 million views, which placed it at No. 17 on the list. 

it's not quite Suits, but Netflix's acquisition of Prison Break was its most successful licensed show of not just the second half of 2024, but the whole year. Season 1 was viewed 31.9 million times, and logged more than 511 million hours viewed. With all five seasons in the Top 70 in views and three seasons in the Top 10 in hours watched, it's very possible that Prison Break was watched more than any other TV show anywhere in 2024. Audiences flocked to the Fox series that premiered in 2005, and its streaming success likely helped push forward development on the simmering Prison Break reboot at Hulu, which ordered a pilot in December 2024. (Fair warning to Hulu: Suits LA is bad.)

There were no sustained objections to Season 3 of The Lincoln Lawyer, which reached No. 15 on the list of Netflix's most-watched shows of the second half of 2024 with 32.5 million views. The legal drama, based on the books of Michael Connelly and starring Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller, slipped a bit from Season 2, which hit No. 10 in the second half of 2023 with 35.7 million views. 

The critically acclaimed British series about five ordinary people in London who develop superpowers was a surprise hit for Netflix with 34.5 million views. It was awarded a second season in August. Perhaps superhero fatigue doesn't count for original ideas. Just a thought, Marvel.

Two-time Oscar nominee Colman Domingo led The Madness to No. 13 on the list with 34.8 million views. The series follows a political pundit who gets framed for a murder. Despite some corny elements, we enjoyed this accessible conspiracy thriller, which featured a good performance by Domingo. Let's give him a Golden Globe or at least a Critics Choice Award.

The Pogues' tans are looking a little more pale. After charting at No. 8 in the first half of 2023 for Season 3, Outer Banks fell to No. 12 for Season 4 with 35.7 million views and had 82 million fewer hours watched in the report's time frame (402 million vs. 320 million). Could it be because Season 4 was split into two parts, diminishing momentum? Or is it because Season 3 wasn't very good and fans didn't come back?

You can argue that American Murder: Laci Peterson was one of Netflix's most successful shows of the second half of 2024 on a cost-profit ratio, considering that docuseries are much cheaper to make than scripted series. The most-watched docuseries of the period caught 37.4 million views to almost crack the Top 10. However, because it was only three episodes long and had a total runtime of just two hours and 40 minutes, it falls to No. 80 when you look at Netflix's other metric, total hours viewed.

Ten of Cobra Kai's final 15 episodes were released in the second half of 2024, pulling in 38.3 million views and bringing the popular Karate Kid spin-off into the Top 10. Cobra Kai is one of Netflix's feel-good stories, a castoff of another streamer (anyone remember YouTube Red?) that enjoyed massive success after getting saved by Netflix.

Netflix's last What We Watched Report featured four British TV shows in the Top 10, including three of the top four (all four if you consider Bridgerton to be a British show). This time around, the spy thriller Black Doves, starring Kiera Knightley and Ben Whishaw, is the lone series in the Top 10 from the United Kingdom, landing at No. 9 with 38.8 million views. 

The Mexican thriller about an accident — a bounce house is swept up by a gust of wind with children still inside, killing three and leaving one missing — that spirals into a war between families is one of three non-English language shows in the Top 10. It recorded 41.2 million views, proving Netflix's investment in regional programming that can resonate globally was a smart move. A second season has been ordered.

Mike Tyson used to be the most feared boxer to ever live. Jake Paul used to do pranks on YouTube. But somehow their paths crossed in Netflix's biggest live event ever and the most streamed sporting event in history when they stepped into the ring to punch each other. Marred with technical difficulties and lackluster boxing, the event still recorded 48.9 million views, according to Netflix's data, crushing the technically smoother Christmas Day NFL games, which received just over 14 million views and aren't on this list. However, Netflix's total views data doesn't really work for live events, and the streamer says 108 million tuned in at some point... if they could get the stream to work. 

Our instinctual desire to watch bad things happen to other people to make us feel better about ourselves might have buoyed this Norwegian disaster series about a volcanic eruption that triggers a tsunami on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands. The second biggest international Netflix show on this list soaked up 52.2 million views.

Netflix has to be pleasantly surprised by the success of the new show Nobody Wants This, which beat Netflix mainstays The Umbrella Academy, The Lincoln Lawyer, and Cobra Kai with 56.8 million views. The romantic comedy stars Kristen Bell as a podcaster who falls for a rabbi (Adam Brody). A second season has been ordered, obviously.

It may get a lot of online hate, but it gets even more Netflix love. Emily in Paris is still a huge hit for Netflix, and Season 4 had 57.8 million views as expatriate Emily (Lily Collins) looked for love in the City of Lights (and Rome). Debuting the first half of Season 4 just days after the Summer Olympics in Paris may have helped.

Ryan Murphy's true-crime anthology series' latest season, which focused on Lyle and Erik Menendez, didn't make the same splash as Season 1, which covered Jeffrey Dahmer and is Netflix's third most-watched English-language series of all time. But it still landed at No. 3 on this list, with an impressive 69.7 million views. More impressively, it moves into the No. 2 spot when total hours viewed are considered.

Rich families embroiled in a murder mystery will always draw views. Add a star like Nicole Kidman and a plot that was written specifically to make you click the "next episode" button, and you get a hit limited series with 75.1 million views in 2024. Though there initially was no intention of making a second season, Netflix might look at these numbers and force another round.

Despite being released on Dec. 26 and only having five days of data on the report, Season 2 of Squid Game crushed the competition with 86.5 million views in 2024, confirming that the popularity of Season 1 was no fluke and that international programming has no borders. As of late February 2025, it's Netflix's third most-watched show in terms of views, trailing only Squid Game Season 1 (which just missed this list at No. 26) and Wednesday. The series has a rare chance to be tops on consecutive What We Watched Reports; Season 3 will be released on June 27. 

The 10 most watched shows on Netflix from July to December 2024.

• The 25 most watched Netflix shows in the first half of 2024
• The best TV shows on Netflix
• The best movies on Netflix
• Everything new on Netflix