‘The Office’ Was by Far the Most-Streamed TV Show in 2020, Nielsen Says

Amid the acceleration of the streaming wars in 2020, one thing was clear: “The Office” stood head and shoulders above every other TV show available on major subscription-video platforms.

Last year, Americans cumulatively streamed more than 57 billion minutes of “The Office,” the comedy favorite that originally aired for nine seasons on NBC, on Netflix, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen. But Netflix won’t benefit from the Dunder Mifflin gang catalog this year: As of Jan. 1, all seasons of “The Office” moved exclusively to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service.

The next-biggest show was past seasons of “Grey’s Anatomy,” also on Netflix, with an estimated 39.4 billion minutes streamed. Indeed, Netflix had a lock on the top 10 most-viewed licensed TV shows, per Nielsen, with past seasons of “Criminal Minds,” “NCIS,” “Schitt’s Creek,” “Supernatural,” “Shameless,” “New Girl,” “The Blacklist” and “Vampire Diaries.”

Note that the rankings are based on the Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings service, which measures just four services: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney Plus.

Among original series on the SVOD services Nielsen tracks, Netflix grabbed nine of the 10 spots, with “Ozark” taking first place. That was followed by “Lucifer,” “The Crown” and “Tiger King.” The only non-Netflix show was Disney Plus’ “The Mandalorian,” with the hit Star Wars spinoff coming in at No. 5.

While “The Office” and other older TV shows registered the biggest viewing numbers for 2020, those titles typically comprise more episodes than newer originals, so it’s not surprising they generate more streaming volume overall. For example, U.S. viewers watched 30.5 billion minutes of “Ozark” during 2020, which was across a total of 28 episodes. The more than 57 billion minutes of “The Office” spanned 192 episodes.

Meanwhile, on the movie front, Disney Plus’ early release of “Frozen II” topped the most-streamed list, followed by “Moana” on Disney Plus and “Secret Life of Pets 2” on Netflix.

A caveat about these numbers: The Nielsen estimates are estimated based on viewing on connected TVs, excluding mobile devices and computers. The streaming providers don’t typically release viewing numbers. When Netflix touts viewing, for example, it uses a proprietary metric that counts how many subscribers watched a minimum of two minutes of a title.

Also Tuesday, Nielsen announced the launch of Theatrical Video On-Demand (TVOD), a measurement service tracking movie releases that are directly available to consumers to rent or purchase on-demand through streaming and pay-TV platforms. Nielsen didn’t specify which platforms would be included in the TVOD measurement service or when exactly it would launch.

Top Streaming Content of 2020: Acquired Series

Top Streaming Content of 2020: Original Series

Top Streaming Content of 2020: Movies

Source: Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus and Hulu), Nielsen National TV Panel, U.S. Viewing through Television. U.S. Persons 2+, Total Minutes Viewed During 2020 (Dec. 30, 2019 through Dec. 27, 2020)