With a whopping 145 million views between its March 13 release date and the end of June, the series quickly surpassed established titles like Squid Game seasons two and three. Only the film Back in Action starring Jamie Foxx performed better, with 165 million views since January—a lead partly due to its extended availability (Back in Action launched on the streamer in January).
What makes Adolescence's performance even more impressive is that it surpassed both new seasons of Squid Game: season two, released in December 2024, achieved 117 million views, while season three, which didn't arrive until June, stalled at 72 million. In comparison, Adolescence needed just over three months to firmly establish itself among the top contenders.
Besides Adolescence, other series also enjoyed success in the first half of 2025. Among British productions, Missing You (58 million views), the seventh season of Black Mirror (31 million), and Dept. Q (25 million) stood out by attracting large global audiences.
Non-English series also performed strongly: a full third of all viewing hours on Netflix were spent on foreign-language titles, and 10 of the 25 most-watched series came from non-English-speaking countries—a logical consequence, given that two-thirds of Netflix subscribers live outside the United States.
Other popular titles in the first half of the year included Zero Day (61 million views), American Primeval (47 million), The Gardener (34 million), Forever (2025) (19 million), Running Point (41 million), and The Four Seasons (39 million). The Emmy-nominated series Sirens finished eighth in the rankings with 53 million views since its premiere on May 22nd.
It's striking that almost half of all viewing time went to older content. Series like Orange Is the New Black, Ozark, and La Casa de Papel/Money Heist each garnered over 100 million viewing hours, while films and series like Lucifer, Red Notice, Leo, and We Can Be Heroes continued to attract millions of viewers—each with over 20 million views.
Finally, Netflix reported that users watched more than 95 billion hours of content in the first six months of 2025. Despite the massive reach of top titles, these represent less than 1% of total viewing volume — a sign of the enormous diversity of viewing behavior on the platform.