‘Ozark’, ‘The Office’ Leads Nielsen 2020 Streaming Ranking

Netflix dominates the series’ top 10 lists, but Disney + captures the majority of feature film slots.

When Netflix lost the broadcast rights to Office on January 1, it lost over 57 billion minutes of viewing time in the United States last year – the equivalent of over 1,000 years of linear time.

Still, the beloved comedy makes up less than 15% of the time Netflix users spent on the streamer’s 20 best titles in 2020, according to Nielsen figures. The listings also show that just over a year after its launch, Disney + made serious forays into the streaming wars, both with its vast library and with a few original titles.

The rating service released a list of the most-watched streaming titles of the past year in terms of total minutes watched during its presentation at CES – where it also announced that it would start measuring feature films released on VOD platforms.

Office is the # 1 most watched streaming title of 2020. The 57.13 billion minutes users spent watching it is 45% more than the second-ranked show, Grey’s Anatomy (39.41 billion minutes). The old NBC series moved to NBCUniversal’s Peacock SVOD service on January 1.

Netflix, with its comprehensive catalog of library content, owns all of the top 10 most important series acquired. They include several other long lasting diffusion staples like NCIS, criminal minds and Supernatural, as well as the recent sweetheart Emmy Schitt Creek and Showtime Shameless. The 10 shows represented some 265.5 billion minutes of viewing in 2020.

Netflix also had nine of the 10 most-viewed original streaming series in the United States, according to Nielsen. Ozark at the top of the list, recording 30.46 billion minutes of viewing last year. Its third season premiered at the end of March and received a huge boost in visibility during season two, Nielsen said.

The only non-Netflix show in the Top 10 Originals is The Mandalorian, which collected 14.52 billion viewing minutes on Disney +. the Star wars The second season of the series has been on Nielsen’s weekly streaming charts for seven straight weeks, the longest such streak in 4.5 months since the company began posting the weekly top 10. He’s likely to drop to eight with the next ranking, which coincides with the season finale.

Disney + has also deployed its library power in the feature film ranking (original and library titles), where it holds seven of the year’s top 10 spots, including the top two: Frozen II (14.92 billion minutes) and Moana (10.51 billion). It also includes two Disney + titles originally intended for a theatrical release in Pixar. Forward (8.37 billion minutes viewed) and the captured live performance of Hamilton (6.13 billion).

Streamers argued that Nielsen’s methodology does not capture the full scope of viewing on devices other than TVs. Nielsen also only measures US audiences, not those in other countries.

Nielsen’s 10 Best Streaming Lists for Original Series, Acquired Series, and Feature Films in 2020 are below.

Original series

Title	Exit	Minutes watched (billions)
Ozark	Netflix	30.46
Lucifer	Netflix	18.95
The crown	Netflix	16.28
King tiger	Netflix	15.61
The Mandalorian	Disney +	14.52
Umbrella Academy	Netflix	13.47
The Great British Pastry Fair	Netflix	13.28
Boss Baby: back to business	Netflix	12.63
Longmire	Netflix	11.38
You	Netflix	10.97

Series acquired

Title	Exit	Minutes watched (billions)
Office	Netflix	57.13
Grey’s Anatomy	Netflix	39.41
Criminal minds	Netflix	35.41
NCIS	Netflix	28.13
Schitt Creek	Netflix	23.79
Supernatural	Netflix	20.34
Shameless	Netflix	18.22
New girl	Netflix	14.55
The blacklist	Netflix	14.48
The Vampire Diaries	Netflix	14.09

Feature films

Title	Exit	Minutes watched (billions)
Frozen II	Disney +	14.92
Moana	Disney +	10.51
The Secret Life of Pets 2	Netflix	9.12
Forward	Disney +	8.37
Dr Seuss Grinch	Netflix	6.18
Hamilton	Disney +	6.13
Spenser confidential	Netflix	5.37
Aladdin (2019)	Disney +	5.17
Toy story 4	Disney +	4.42
Zootopia	Disney +	4.4