“Stranger Things” ended its final season with an average of 32.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched series of the just-ended 2025-2026 television season. The Netflix thriller had an average viewership of 35 days, according to Nielsen’s Multiplatform Ranker.
Nielsen introduced multiplatform data last year, allowing us to finally fully compare how shows are performing on streaming and linear, and how those broadcast shows benefit from time-shifted viewing on streaming partners. While this chart doesn’t include sports series like “Sunday Night Football,” which would still be No. 1 (on linear at least), it does give a more interesting look at what the most-watched regular series of the year actually was.
In addition to “Stranger Things,” that meant Netflix’s “His & Hers.” Next up is CBS’ “Marshalls,” the most-watched show of the year, the first in Taylor Sheridan’s “Yellowstone” universe, with 20.7 million viewers.
Note that this chart is through mid-April, so some of the numbers may drop for new shows that are still airing new episodes in May. However, by the end of the season, CBS had “Tracker” in the top 10, ABC had “High Potential,” HBO Max had “The Pit,” and Paramount+ had “Landman.” The rest of the top 10 are Netflix shows.
Variety will expand on this chart and break down the highs and lows soon, so stay tuned.
The most-watched non-sports TV series in America for the 2025-2026 season was…
Top Shows of 2025-2026 (Total Viewers, Multiplatform 35 Day Ranker)
Historical chart records:
2012-2013 TV season
2013-2014 TV season
2014-2015 TV season
2015-2016 TV season
2016-2017 TV season
2017-2018 TV season
2018-2019 TV season
2019-2020 TV season
2020-2021 TV season
2021-2022 TV Season
2022-2023 TV season
2023-2024 TV season
2024-2025 TV season
