‘Bluey’ Wins Second Consecutive Top Streaming Title of the Year with 45 Billion Viewing Minutes on Disney+
‘Stranger Things’ Secures Top Original Series with 40 Billion Minutes Streamed on Netflix, as the Streamer Claims Five Wins
Seth MacFarlane Named Streaming Icon of the Year with his TV Shows and Films Earning 60+ Billion Streaming Minutes
Audiences Spent 16.7 Trillion Minutes Streaming in 2025, Up 19% Year-Over-Year
NEW YORK – January 28, 2026 – Nielsen today announced the winners of the 2025 ARTEY Awards, the company’s annual recognition of the most-watched streaming titles of the year. This year’s ARTEY Awards went to eight titles across Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix, Paramount+ and Pluto, and also included the inaugural ARTEY for Streaming Icon of the Year, which was presented to Seth MacFarlane.
Powered by Nielsen’s Streaming Content Ratings data, ARTEY Award winners are uniquely determined by the audience. Awards are presented to the streaming title that captured the most viewing minutes throughout the year within a given category. Nielsen’s 2025 ARTEY Award winners include:
| Award Category | Title | Distributor | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top Overall & Top Acquired | Bluey | Disney+ | 45.2 billion minutes |
| Top Original | Stranger Things | Netflix | 40.0 billion |
| Top Kids Movie | KPop Demon Hunters | Netflix | 20.6 billion |
| Top Movie – General Audiences | Happy Gilmore 2 | Netflix | 7.1 billion |
| Top New Original – Drama | The Pitt | HBO Max | 11.4 billion |
| Top New Original – Comedy | Running Point | Netflix | 5.1 billion |
| Top New Original – Unscripted | Sean Combs: The Reckoning | Netflix | 4.8 billion |
| Most-Binged Series | Gunsmoke | Paramount+ Pluto Peacock | 241 episodes per viewer |
| Streaming Icon of the Year | Seth MacFarlane | Hulu Peacock Netflix | 60+ billion minutes |
Nielsen’s streaming insights for 2025 also revealed that audiences spent an estimated 16.7 trillion minutes streaming in 2025—equivalent to about 277.6 billion hours, 11.6 billion days and over 31.7 million years. This is about an 19% increase in time spent streaming compared to 2024, which totaled nearly 14 trillion minutes. It also marks the most heavily streamed year on record, according to Nielsen.
“The ARTEY Awards give us a chance to have a little more fun with the data categories by acknowledging how consumers are engaging with shows and movies,” said Brian Fuhrer, SVP Product Strategy at Nielsen. “It’s especially interesting to track the evolution of streaming and the titles that drive it year-over-year, and the strategies and successes that our clients have along with it. While there are some expected winners, there are always some surprises and new entrants that have captured the imagination of viewers. What is undeniable is the trajectory of streaming, and the increasing appetite for content of all kinds.”
The ARTEY for Streaming Icon of the Year was presented to Seth MacFarlane. This specific honor recognizes a creator, actor, producer or writer whose vast body of work drives significant, sustained viewership across platforms. As a prolific force in entertainment, MacFarlane was selected as the inaugural recipient for his time-tested ability to engage audiences. In 2025 alone, MacFarlane’s catalog of TV series and films generated over 60 billion viewing minutes across streaming platforms, a figure equivalent to about 116,000 years of time spent streaming.
Key drivers of MacFarlane’s recognition include:
- Family Guy: The series ranked as the second most-watched adult animation streaming title and the No. 7 streaming program overall in 2025. In a display of incredible consistency, Family Guy charted on Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 for an astonishing 37 weeks in 2025. Family Guy remains a pop-culture staple, earning MacFarlane multiple Emmy Awards—including four for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance, tying for the most wins in that category’s history. All episodes of Family Guy stream on Hulu.
- American Dad!: The series secured the No. 3 most-watched adult animation streaming title in 2025, further solidifying MacFarlane’s dominance in the genre. He is the co-creator, executive producer, and primary voice actor for the long-running animated favorite. The new season will air its anticipated 400th episode in 2026 and all episodes stream on Hulu.
- Family Guy was the top streaming show among adults 18-34 in 2025. American Dad! ranked fifth among the same age group. Both are among the longest-running shows in TV history.
- MacFarlane’s acclaimed films generated nearly 2 billion viewing minutes on streaming alone, including recent Critics’ Choice Award Winner The Naked Gun, Ted, Ted 2, A Million Ways to Die in the West and Books of Blood.
- MacFarlane’s additional beloved TV series racked up nearly 3 billion viewing minutes, including The Orville, Ted (series), The Cleveland Show, The End is Nye, Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey and Cosmos: Possible Worlds.
“I want to thank Nielsen for this Streaming Icon Award,” said Seth MacFarlane. “It’s a high honor to receive the first prize in show business that isn’t determined by quality.”
“Seth MacFarlane is behind some of the most-beloved and most-watched shows and movies across every platform,” said Brian Hughes, Director of Data Communications, Nielsen. “When it comes to streaming TV, people vote with their time and Seth’s prolific projects are clearly getting their votes.”
The viewing is also notable as it is spread across different platforms. In the coming weeks, Family Guy premieres its 24th season with its milestone 450th episode on FOX (February 15); American Dad! debuts its 20th season marking its return to FOX (February 22) and both shows stream new episodes the next day on Hulu. Additionally, MacFarlane’s highly-anticipated second season of Ted premieres on Peacock on March 5.
Seth MacFarlane is the founder of Fuzzy Door, the production company behind many of today’s most successful film and television projects. Led by MacFarlane and President and Chief Creative Officer (CCO) Erica Huggins, Fuzzy Door is dedicated to producing a diverse and ambitious array of entertainment projects that shape the social conversation in popular culture, science, music, politics and society as a whole. The company’s upcoming projects include The ‘Burbs (premiering on Peacock on February 8), season two of Ted (premiering on Peacock on March 5) and Sagan (National Geographic), the anticipated documentary about legendary astronomer and astrophysicist Carl Sagan.
Nielsen first launched the ARTEY Awards in 2024 as a way to recognize TV’s powerful ability to engage and resonate with broad and diverse audiences, and celebrate what truly defines the cultural conversation. The ARTEYS are named after Nielsen’s founder, Arthur C. Nielsen, and are an acronym for “Audience Rated Television Entertainment of the Year.”
As the industry leader in streaming measurement, insights and intelligence, Nielsen measures over 1 trillion minutes of viewing across all streaming services in a typical month. Nielsen has integrated thousands of streaming meters into its panel of more than 40,000 households, further enabling its unique capabilities for all streaming measurement, including live streaming. The company’s weekly and monthly reports—the Nielsen Streaming Top 10, The Gauge and the Media Distributor Gauge—are also recognized as industry benchmarks.
About Nielsen
Nielsen is a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics. Through our understanding of people and their behaviors across all channels and platforms, we empower our clients with independent and actionable intelligence so they can connect and engage with their global audiences—now and into the future. Learn more at www.nielsen.com and connect with us on social media (X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram).
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