Luminate, the data research company owned by Variety parent PMC, published its year-end 2025 film and TV report on Wednesday, and among the surprises: Peacock’ “Love Island USA” was the most-watched streaming original TV season — growing its year-to-year viewership by 150%.
That makes “Love Island USA” the first unscripted series to top Luminate’s annual rankings. Netflix remains the TV streaming leader, with six of the top 10 series in the overall rankings. But Netflix’s share of U.S. original content viewing time dropped below 60%, as rivals HBO Max, Paramount+ and Amazon Prime Video saw gains. (Among key 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 is overshadowing the all-at-once binge, as Luminate reports that six of its top 10 highest-retention scripted releases came out on a weekly basis. Overall, people are continuing to watch more TV: Hours viewed for original series went up 18%: From 17 billion in 2024 to more than 20 billion in 2025.
But as viewership goes up, the volume of TV premieres goes down. As part of the industry-wide contraction, U.S.-produced premieres were down 11% in 2025 — with broadcast the steepest, down 21%. Cable was down 10%.
As for streaming, they were down collectively 8% in 2025. Netflix had 133 SVOD TV premieres (vs. 141 in 2024), leading the pack, followed by 59 for Prime Video (up from 42), 45 for Hulu (down slightly from 48) and 37 for Apple TV (unchanged).
In the struggling world of local production, U.S.-produced TV premieres were down 11%, while Los Angeles in particular saw a huge 26% drop in film and TV projects (from 112 in 2024 to 83 in 2025). Canada, on the other hand, saw a boost from 67 projects in 2024 to 96 in 2025.
Luminate also is tracking a steep drop off 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 continues to be the most common source for streamers, followed by the U.K. and India.
Meanwhile, in film, “Wicked” was tops among U.S. streaming films in 2025, followed by Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters.” Overall, streaming film output continued its decline (from 343 in 2024 to 290 in 2025), with even Netflix pulling back.
U.S. theatrical film releases, at least, saw an uptick: 80 in 2025, up from 74 in 2024.
Here are the most-watched streaming original TV seasons in the U.S. in 2025, by minutes streamed:
And here are the top streaming films of 2025, by U.S. minutes watched:
“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. “Much like the seismic shifts previously observed in the music sector, the past 12 months in film and television have been defined by a definitive pivot away from the era of growth at all costs toward a more intentional, data driven approach to global fandom. As the streaming wars transition into a battle for retention and margin, the data contained within this report serves as a roadmap for an industry finding its footing in a new, stabilized reality.”
See the full Luminate report here.
Source: variety.com
