‘Love Island USA’ was the most-watched streaming original of 2025
Luminate, the data research company of Variety parent company PMC released its year-end 2025 film and TV report on Wednesday, and among the surprises was: Peacock’s ‘Love Island USA’ was the most-watched streaming original TV season – growing viewership 150% year over year.
That makes “Love Island USA” the first unscripted series to top Luminate’s annual rankings. Netflix remains the leader in TV streaming, with six of the top 10 series in the overall rankings. But Netflix’s share of viewing time for original US content fell below 60%, while rivals HBO Max, Paramount+ and Amazon Prime Video posted gains. (Among the top shows for Netflix’s rivals: HBO Max’s “The Pitt,” Apple TV’s “Your Friends & Neighbors,” Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” and Paramount+’s “Landman.”)
Meanwhile, the weekly rollout overshadows the all-in-one binge, as Luminate reports that six of the top 10 scripted releases with the highest retention came out weekly. Overall, people continue to watch more TV: the number of viewing hours for original series has increased by 18%, from 17 billion in 2024 to more than 20 billion in 2025.
But as viewership increases, the number of TV premieres decreases. As part of the industry-wide contraction, the number of US-produced premieres fell 11% in 2025 – with broadcasts being the steepest, down 21%. Cable was down 10%.
As for streaming, they collectively declined by 8% in 2025. Netflix had 133 SVOD TV premieres (vs. 141 in 2024), putting it in the lead, followed by 59 for Prime Video (down from 42), 45 for Hulu (down slightly from 48) and 37 for Apple TV (unchanged).
In the struggling world of local production, US-produced TV premieres fell 11%, while in Los Angeles in particular, film and TV projects fell 26% (from 112 in 2024 to 83 in 2025). Canada, on the other hand, saw an increase from 67 projects in 2024 to 96 in 2025.
Luminate also signals a steep decline in unscripted production, with the genre seeing a 31% decline across streaming and linear. That included almost every subgenre except sports.
In international series, South Korea remains the most common source for streamers, followed by Britain and India.
Meanwhile, in the movie world, “Wicked” topped the list of US streaming movies in 2025, followed by Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters.” Overall, streaming movie production continued to decline (from 343 in 2024 to 290 in 2025), with even Netflix pulling out.
In any case, the number of cinema films in the US increased: 80 in 2025, compared to 74 in 2024.
Here are the most-watched streaming original TV seasons in the US in 2025, by minutes streamed:
And here are the best streaming movies of 2025, measured per minutes watched in the US:
“Our 2025 Luminate Year-End Film & TV Report serves as a foundational piece of entertainment intelligence, designed to guide industry partners through a landscape that is simultaneously maturing and fragmenting,” said Luminate CEO Rob Jonas. “Like the seismic shifts seen before in the music sector, the past twelve months in film and television have been defined by a definitive shift away from the era of growth at all costs and toward a more intentional, data-driven approach to global fandom. As the streaming wars devolve into a battle for retention and margin, the data in this report serves as a roadmap for an industry finding its footing in a new, stabilized reality.”
View the full Luminate report here.
