The streaming wars have gone on for years now — long enough for customers to see the focus shift to IP, and the battle to attract the most showrunners and franchises that keep viewers from dropping their subscriptions. When they were in the running to potentially purchase Warner Bros., Netflix chief Ted Sarandos was often asked if the company really needed to buy Warners, and the answer was always no; instead, the pending purchase meant the tech company could expand into the theatrical market. Of course, Netflix pulled out of the bidding and let Paramount win, continuing alone — and continuing to dominate the streaming charts. As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, both Netflix and CBS lead multi-platform streaming numbers by a good margin. Stranger Things (Netflix) is the most-watched show of the 2025-’26 season, courtesy of a final batch of episodes that drew in 32.9 million viewers during their first 35 days of viewing availability. His & Hers attracted 25.6 million, Bridgerton 18.3 million, Monster: The Ed Gein Story 13.4 million, and The Beast in Me 12.7 million. All told, six of the year’s top 12 shows are on Netflix.

The top network show is CBS’ Marshals, the Yellowstone spin-off that has racked up 20.7 million viewers halfway through its first season. Marshals is also the third most-streamed show overall, behind Stranger Things and His & Hers. Other CBS shows, like Tracker , also rank in the top 15, including 60 Minutes, which sits in the 14th slot with 9.7 million viewers. ABC has four shows in the top 25, boasting the hits High Potential, The Rookie, Will Trent, and Dancing With the Stars. Prime Video found success with Fallout as their top show, landing 13.3 million viewers. The Boys, by comparison, found 9.9 million. Landman on Paramount+ is the streamer’s top show, which will surprise nobody, as it drew 19.8 million viewers for a top five placement. Meanwhile, Paramount+ has one other entry in the top 25 with The Madison, which grabbed 10.2 million viewers.

HBO Max only has one show in the top 25: The Pitt, which drew 13.8 million viewers. NBC/Peacock also only has one top show, Chicago Fire, with 9.9 million viewers. As Netflix and CBS dominate the charts, we can expect the other streamers to continue pumping out entertaining shows in hopes of moving up the ranks in the data-driven investment model that moves the entertainment industry these days. Both HBO and Paramount+ have plans to dump money and resources into programming in the coming years, so expect those streamers to continue clawing for Netflix’s crown.

Summary

Netflix and CBS dominate streaming; Stranger Things leads with 32.9M viewers.

CBS’s Marshalls and Paramount+’s Landman crack the top five; Netflix still owns six of top 12.

HBO, Paramount+ and others plan big programming spends to challenge Netflix’s crown.

Release Date

2016 – 2025-00-00

Network

Netflix

Writers

Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock