Lucifer Tops Squid Game For Most Streamed Series in 2021

Deadline reports that Lucifer topped Nielsen’s list of most-streamed original series in the United States in 2021, edging out Squid Game. Lucifer became a Netflix show in 2018 after originally airing on FOX. The show clocked in over 18.3 billion minutes of streaming in 2021, ahead of 16.4 billion for Squid Game. It’s worth noting that Lucifer has 93 episodes while Squid Game has just nine.

Lucifer isn’t the first time Netflix has taken a show that another network canceled and made it a big hit. Manifest, a show Netflix picked up after it was canceled by NBC, logged almost 20 billion minutes of streaming in 2020.

Netflix dominated the charts, with 12 of the top 15 shows. The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu was the top non-Netflix show, followed by Ted Lasso on Apple TV+.

Netflix also dominated the acquired series charts, with 14 of the top 15 shows. Criminal Minds was #1 with 33.9 billion minutes, followed by Cocomelon at 33.2 billion.

On the movies side, Disney+ dominated with 11 of the top 15, including the #1 most streamed movie in 2021, Luca, which logged 10.6 billion minutes. The top non-Disney+ movie was Netflix’s Red Notice.

Nielsen only tracks Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Prime Video, and Apple TV+ for these lists, so they don’t include HBO Max, Peacock, etc.