Netflix’s original shows and movies typically dominate the streamer’s most-viewed content rankings. But it still serves up hundreds of millions of hours of content licensed from third parties, as shown by Netflix’s massive data dump for viewing covering the first half of 2024.
Not surprisingly, kids content continues to fare well — extremely well. No. 1 on the TV side is perennial preschool favorite “CoComelon,” from Moonbug Entertainment, which pulled in 124.5 million views in aggregate. And that doesn’t include the two seasons of “CoComelon Lane” (34.4 million), which is a Netflix original produced by Moonbug. In addition, Moonbug’s “Little Angel” series garnered 52.4 million views over its five volumes.
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Following “CoComelon” was another children’s TV staple: British animated show “Peppa Pig,” with 117.4 million views over six seasons. “Young Sheldon,” the spinoff the “The Big Bang Theory” that just ended its run on CBS last spring, came in strong with 106 million views across six seasons on Netflix.
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“Suits,” which thanks to Netflix re-entered the zeitgeist years after ending its run on USA, also continued to perform well, with 81.2 million views across 9 seasons. Reruns of “The Walking Dead” (47.1 million) and “Breaking Bad” (38.0 million) also continued to pay off for Netflix.
Other notable licensed TV shows that ranked highly on Netflix’s report are Showtime’s “Dexter” (33.2 million views) and HBO’s “Sex and the City” (33.1 million).
“We’ve got a rich history of helping break some of TV’s biggest hits, like ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Walking Dead,’” co-CEO Ted Sarandos told analysts on Netflix’s earnings call in January. “Because of our recommendation, our reach, we can resurrect a show like ‘Suits’ and turn it into a big pop-culture moment but also generate billions of hours of joy for our members.”
Meanwhile, three of Netflix’s top 10 movies for the first half of 2024 were licensed — and were animated family films: Universal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (80 million) and “Minions” (73 million), and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Boss Baby” (64 million)
Note that in many cases, Netflix does not have worldwide licensing rights for TV shows and movies. For example, “Big Bang Theory” is not available in the U.S. on Netflix; shows licensed from HBO (including “Sex and the City” and “Insecure”) are available in the U.S., Latin America, and some European and Asia-Pacific countries. Meanwhile, some content is available for limited periods: Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” was available in the U.S. for only few months in 2024; currently the film is available in Australia and several European countries on Netflix.
Netflix calculates views by dividing total hours viewed divided by runtime. Here’s a list of the most-watched licensed content on Netflix for the first half of 2024.
TV Shows
| Show | Studio | Views |
| CoComelon | Moonbug Entertainment | 124,500,000 |
| Peppa Pig | Hasbro | 117,400,000 |
| Young Sheldon | Warner Bros. Television | 105,800,000 |
| Suits | Universal Content Productions | 81,200,000 |
| Masha and the Bear | Animaccord | 70,200,000 |
| Brooklyn Nine-Nine | Universal Television | 65,900,000 |
| Big Bang Theory | Warner Bros. Television | 55,000,000 |
| Little Angel | Moonbug Entertainment | 52,400,000 |
| The Walking Dead | AMC Studios | 47,100,000 |
| Bebefinn | Pinkfong | 39,800,000 |
| Breaking Bad | Sony Pictures Entertainment | 38,000,000 |
Movies
| Film | Studio | Views |
| The Super Mario Bros. Movie | Universal/Illumination | 80,300,000 |
| Minions | Universal/Illumination | 72,700,000 |
| The Boss Baby | DreamWorks Animation | 63,600,000 |
| Despicable Me 3 | Universal/Illumination | 61,600,000 |
| Shrek | DreamWorks Animation | 56,900,000 |
| The Equalizer 3 | Columbia Pictures | 53,500,000 |
| Trolls | DreamWorks Animation | 42,700,000 |
| Sing 2 | Universal/Illumination | 40,400,000 |
| Top Gun: Maverick | Paramount Pictures/Skydance | 37,100,000 |
| Hotel Transylvania 2 | Sony Pictures Animation | 36,500,000 |
