Most Popular TV Series 1986 - 2022
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- Опубліковано 1 гру 2022
- Hey guys, this is a major update to one of my most demanded videos. I've added three years of the latest data, plus a much-needed normalization of streaming platforms reports. In the upcoming days I'm going to release more videos with new and updated data. I hope that you enjoy the party.
Timeline history of the most viewed TV series from 1986 to 2022. Ranking is based on the following factors: prime-time first 24 hours audience reports, one week of reported statistics for downloaded copies (pirated), one week of streaming services viewership. Numbers are worldwide with significant bias towards the US market up until 2002, afterwards it's balanced by p2p distribution across the globe.
Data source: prime-time TV viewership, streaming services reports, DHT traffic analysis.
As always, your feedback is welcome.
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I am a first year PhD student, data geek and I love visualizations.
2022 update: I am now officially a program drop out and father of beautiful girl.
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Sorry I'm late.
I owe you more videos!
First 😁🙏😃
F
it's alright lol but welcome back!
You're finally back, we're all stoked for your return and thanks! 😄👍
So long u r fine
What I learned from this is that NCIS is apparently a beast and I've never seen a single episode. Lol.
because it has 20 seasons so took people a long time 2 finish the other shows that came in and out had only 1 -2 seasons
I watched that years ago, I think it was good. Can't speak for current episodes.
Pretty much everyone in America who is over 50 watches it
And people tend to leave the tv on after sporting events lol
Same! 😂
Dexter, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones all on at once. Golden Era
Don’t forget about The Walking Dead
Well the Golden Era was really in the 20th Century when people gathered together to watch TV at a specific time -- before streaming, before DVR's, before even VCR's.
For me it is 2008, Dexter, Breaking, Mentalist, Two and half, Big bang, about Mentalist I was very active on forums, it is last tv show where I guessing who is Red John, give advice or suggestions....
Sad the data didn't start a few years earlier and it would reveal MASH as the all time Most Popular TV series produced. I'm surprised Stranger Things didn't rank higher, it seems to be a victim of the very long delays between seasons. Netflix certainly feels like they are struggling to be represented in the top listed TV series.
The list is flawed.
Netflix sees competition finally
Agreed. I wish we could see this with data from M*A*S*H. The final episode of M*A*S*H was rated higher then the Super Bowl for MANY MANY years. It might be neat to see a chart of shows/broadcast based on all time peak ratings ranked like this over the years.
what this showed me was that I apparently stopped watching TV shows in the early 2000s. Never saw a single episode of most of those shows, and frankly didn't miss them.
@@bobf5360Was it all of the reality TV that made you quit?
After two years, the legend has returned; awoken from its hibernation.
Truly a legend, been waiting for the return.
*its
@@ProJanitor No, because "Hibernation" is the possession of the subject so there must be an apostrophe before the "s"
@@MrDigThis There should also be a semicolon before “woken”.
@@ProJanitor Yeah that's a fair one, thanks.
GoT Meta was strong. Also didn't expect Wandavision to be that popular.
Mostly thanks to massively pirated downloads.
@@DataIsBeautifulOfficial Whoa... I wonder how you can gather that kind of data!
Insane that over decades nothing could beat the Cosby Show until GoT came along. The hype was unreal and if the last season had been split into two and been actually good I am sure the hype would have even continued to grow.
@@niklas5771 What about NCIS? If it wasn't in the top spot, it was in top 3 for the last 12 years!
@@maxxxmodelz4061 I think the list kinda conducted of some main network companies. Where’s smallville from 2000s. Where’s louis and Clark from 90s? And from 80s some favorite shows like moonlighting?
Interesting how the 80's & 90's stuff all made sense to me (I can remember what was popular even if I didn't watch it), while the newer stuff was often a total surprise.
It's so easy now to be isolated in our own fan communities, absorbing tons of data and discussion about what we like, and not even accidentally run across something outside that range. We don't even have "saw it while waiting for something to come on" anymore, since we watch everything on-demand now.
a lot of it had to do with channels. if you were on after the popular show people just didnt change the channel. nbc thursday nights was a unique period in history cheers, cosby, nightcourt, and family ties
Love seeing The X-Files break into the ranks. 25 million is an insane number of viewers for a show of that kind.
Hum...I expected it to be higher or stay longer in the top10 honestly... that show was a huge cultural phenomenon back then, they even made 2 theater movies out of it
The longevity of NCIS is insane 🤯.
What's that?
@@margesimpson2215 A procedural crime drama primarily focusing on the military.
And blue bloods
I'm just amazed at how long NCIS was up in the top two or three. It held the top spot longer than any other series since the Cosby Show and ER I think.
I am wondering we dont see Married...with children here. Maybe it was a bigger success here in Germany than in the U.S.
@@thefunnygoat6325 Yeah, it was never really in the top 10 in the ratings, although it was still very popular here too.
very impressive ! NCIS ✨
i'm also more puzzled by how fleeting was Friends in the top spot ! .. it's media hype is wayyyy more appealing than its actual rating numbers throughout its air time ! (i'm a ✨ Seinfeld ✨ fan though ) .
I had to Google NCIS. I’m shocked it’s such a popular show and I know nothing about it.
@@thefunnygoat6325 If I remember correctly, Fox in the mid-80's was not in every market in the US like ABC, NBC, or CBS. So just the reach wasn't there
Twenty years down the road and NCIS is still on the top. Quite impressive
I never even heard of that show but it clearly has staying power.
@@CalvinHikesncis is a pretty cool show it’s about navy cops, but i prefer law and order
Especially for an absolutely shit show... You have to be mentally challenged to watch it.
I knew that BBT was very popular but the fact that it was within the top 3 for so long (almost as long as its existence), is quite fascinating. It also immediately helped Young Sheldon to get a spot within the list here.
I absolutely loved TBBT but never got on with Young Sheldon, probably because Kaley was not in it. I was surprised that Friends only went to the top once, that was another of my favourite shows. A lot of those at the top I never watched.
@@honestchris7472 well, there are some shows that weren't in the top 5 for that long, even though they marked television history, like Friends, The Sopranos, or Breaking Bad. There are probably shows with more views, but less impact on the culture like those, for instance
@@AlexKaufman maybe it is because I don`t, or didn`t watch a lot of the ones that hit the top a lot, for instance, I never watched the Soprano`s and I never watched Breaking Bad either. Of course that does not mean that I thought that they were not worth watching, it is all about the hook, if the title does not inspire a person to watch it, then you never get into it but even so, quite a few programs that did have the hook turned out to be a waste of time, Hero`s, The Dome, The 100, lost and The Last of Us are three examples, each started good but then they made them into series and the writers struggled to keep them going, for all of these, one series would have been enough if they had a proper believable ending.
it's more sad. BBT sucks.
@@mangomariel well, that is your opinion, the wrong opinion but none the less it is yours, a great many millions loved it.
Really shows how people just don't watch shows as much as they used to. The top ten today wouldn't even make the top ten from 1987. This was super fascinating!
More choice nowadays. Saturated.
@@DataIsBeautifulOfficial Do you have the numbers for how many shows were in production over the same interval? Would be really curious about what context that gives to this video :D
Well Game of Thrones did have better numbers at 61.8 million than The Cosby Show at its peak with “only” 61.2 million
I don’t have it. I can only assume it’s higher now just look how many shows Netflix alone seeds every year.
@@DataIsBeautifulOfficial I just listened to a podcast today that this time is a perfect time to be a ScreenWriter because there are SO many options available. An Abundance of Content. Creativity will rise to the top.
Did anyone else smile when Game of Thrones jumped up there and battled it out with Big Bang Theory?
I am, because BBT is traaaasshhhh lol
@@briansolo Makes it even more surprising that Young Sheldon is so good imo
Nope. Just you, apparently.
I didn’t even expect The Big Bang Theory would make it up that high on the list, not that it’s a bad show
Two overrated shows, battling to be number one on a DOA year lineup? Hardly.
As a fantasy nerd, the success of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon brings a tear to my eye lol
It only shows people are sheep.
Michael Crichton was the writer of Jurassic Park and the creator of ER. In the early 1990s, he had the number one book, number one movie, and number one TV show.
I'm a massive jurassic park nerd and I had no idea about that. Thank you so much for telling! Michael is a damn beast!
the legend is back 🎉
i loved your content back in 2019/2020, it's honestly what inspired me to do graphs, so thanks and a happy welcome from everyone here in the comments :D
Thank you all! I read every comment, best dopamine boost ever.
@@DataIsBeautifulOfficial what the hell happened?
@@harrishromero6447 drugs
@@tkdevlop you think?
Rings of Power appeared for 1 second, then disappeared... beautiful
i noticed the same thing, it warmed my hearth :)
Yeah 16 million is such a colossal failure. You're really sticking it to the corporations by disliking a TV show.
@@LorenzoDoesntExist, given how much they spent on that show, that's an enormous loss. Goes to show what happens when you warp a beloved IP and disdain its fans. Tolkien despised political commentary in fantasy, and a central theme of the LoTR was that that you can't use evil means to achieve good things. Both of these stances are directly contradicted by the show.
@@carsonrush3352 I'm in awe of your acute understanding of politics, finance, business, and audiovisual production.
Lets wait for the 2nd season.
I was under the impression that the Simpsons was one of the most popular shows of all time. It had a brief moment in the top 10 in 96 and that was it. I'm shocked
Thanks for returning to the stats community. You’ve given our community a lot and I appreciate it. Me and many others make statistics like this because of how cool these visualisations are.
Any time!
Seeing rings of power pop up for an embarrassing second and house of the dragon getting to the top restored my faith in the future of entertainment.
😂🤣 I know right??
I saw the same thing. Hilarious. They could have made easy money.
It's so satisfying!!!
It just proved the chart is wrong and lacks data, it maxed at 15mill when the premiere had 25mill first 24hours.
@@Askyl no that’s Amazon lying about its real views
Can't believe it has been two years already. Excited for more great videos from Data Is Beautiful!
The Walking Dead certainly had it's ups and downs, but it was able to do Zombie Apocalypse sci-fi like I'd never seen before, and it's highs were so great to watch when they were first released. Excited to watch a few of the spin-off shows coming.
Kind of surprised that 90210 didn't at least make an appearance - there sure was a lot of hype for it at the time
I had no idea Yellowstone was this popular, I definitely have to binge watch it.
Dude...it's magic 🤌
It's awesome. Think Game of Thrones in the modern-day American West.
Glad to see you're doing alright. Your videos are one of the better ones in the data community.
Thank you!
Did Rick and Morty never crack the list? Was GOT the only show to get 50 mil +?
Dexter, the walking dead and Breaking bad are masterpieces.
This is one of the most amazing comebacks that I didn't think would happen. A behemoth with one of the highest levels that I was thankfully able to find and obtain. Nice to have you here again.
Got chills when The Mandolorian showed up and popped off, single-handedly saved the Stars Wars franchise and reignited my love for it
It was good!
Big respect to NCIS for being in the top 10 since 2003 and top 3 since 2009 geez
Who are these people watching NCIS?!?!
ive never had any interest in a detective show. crazy how many people seem to love it.
@@ReRe-yl6dq It was really good for a really long time... But anything thats been on air for almost 20 years inevitably gets boring.
I'm surprised too, I guess it was the corny nature mixed the seriousness that kept it interesting for long time. Versus CSI which was pure serious.
@@eggstube My parents love it! So... boomers?
I think it is amazing to see that there are specific shows like Wandavision which are huge for a specific amount of time and then there is NCIS: in this Top 10 since 2013 and still not even close to lose viewers. They do many things the right way for a long time already..
Who tf watches NCIS tho lol… I’ve never heard anyone say “oh you catch that new NCIS episode😂”
@@duffal0 it seems as if many people still do watch it.. and here in Germany I do know a lot of people who do 🤷🏼♀️
Yeah the paid limited series come in and dominate but NCIS stayed steady. I’ve never seen it nor do I know anyone that watches it but it must be doing something right. I’ll probably find out in reruns like Frazier lol
I binged NCIS until Season 9. Too many OG's started leaving. It wasn't the same..
@@rabeab8116 yeah... Just think about the attention span and levels of interesting these people who enjoy this crap can offer and you just go yuck
Your comeback this time is one of the greatest comebacks in youtube history. welcome back!
Season 2 to season 4 of House of the Dragon will make history ! Mark my words
Book 2 isnt even out bro
Lost interest when they ruined the show and changed half the actors. All the focus was on the princess who changes suddenly and the King who doesn’t change but is actually not great a character at all. Rings of Power was better.
@@Stanlyy. they shot almost the entire 1st season off of 1 chapter in the book.
@@chriscraddock2867 how many chapter is there
Another show with tonnes of SEX that gets “critical acclaim”
Just watch a porno man 😂
Seriously, these shows are AIMED at COUPLES to get them off. Its like an acceptable way of getting porn to the masses. Then the audience all go round patting eachother on the back by exchanging in depth analysis on how good the production value is and the script and the genius directing etc
They’re just GETTING OFF together 😂 end OF
really refreshing to see you back, this exact same background music like your old videos brings so much nostalgia even though it's been only 2 years. keep it up :D
No it's 3 years. His last video was in December 2019.
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing this info, and in such a visually compelling format.
I find it amazing how much tastes have changed, not to mention the effect streaming has on popularity speed, very interesting 🙂
Well I'm not too surprised that people no longer watch The Cosby show.
Without any excuses he posted a video directly
He dont speak for him self he let the content speak for him
Great thing
This true NCIS still sticks at the tops
They found a winning formula and stuck to it.
@@DataIsBeautifulOfficial
I feel like they’ll just keep going until Mark Harmon’s gone. Then they’ll recast and everyone will stop watching and they’ll finally stop making it and only show re-runs.
@@hornetf18 mark Harmon's got replace recent
@@WilliamHollinger2019
wut
@@hornetf18 Mark Harmon left the show fall of 2021
Loved to see Seinfeld and Two and a Half Men holding its own. Also Breaking Bad, but it should've been higher for a longer time. I'm sad that Battlestar Galactica (the 2004 version) didn't make the ranking. It's the best sci-fi show of all time to me.
80s/90s/00s were rich with comedy and laughter. I was fortunate to grow up during this era.
HES BACK WHEN WE NEEDED HIM MOST
If that's how many views season 1 of HotD got them imagine e the amount that the later seasons will get... It's gonna break records
2011-2019 was the golden age of TV. Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Dexter, GoT, House of Cards, Mandalorian. Sad that some of these shows fell off near the end and some just came crashing down like a house of cards...
Love your videos and the music is so soothing with it. Its like a Magical Conjunction!!! Welcome back 🎉🎉🎉
😊 thank you
You can really see when new seasons of streaming shows drop. They jump up in ratings quick and then drop off just as quickly after everyone has binged the season.
Yep.
FINALLY 🥰🥰🥰 Welcome back data is beautiful 😉
There is a serious lack of acknowledgement in the comments here for *Seinfeld*
When it ended it was at the height of it's popularity, with 51 million views. Before international viewing or streaming via the internet was possible. So that is 51 Million people, mostly just in America watching the last episode all at the same time on TV.
That record was broken only by one series: Game of Thrones.
An international series where the stats also include streaming that happened the week after release.
It's crazy, absolutely nuts how popular Seinfeld was. And no one is talking about it.
Love that Rings of Power showed up for a split second then fell through the floor.
Just when we needed them most, they returned to us!
I grew up watching Saved by the Bell, Family Matters, Growing Pains, and Full House. I’m surprised some of these shows are not as popular as I thought they were!
A lot of great shows around.
Saved by the Bell originally aired Saturday mornings. And it may have been popular enough to get a reboot on a streaming service, it was cancelled after one or two seasons on Peacock.
Full House did appear in the top ten at one point
Not sure whether SbtB did but I think it was more of a kids' show than one that appealed as broadly as most top ten shows do?
Yea, who would have thought Roseanne would be at the top? I would have thought Full House for sure. But maybe that was just more for kids.
They WERE popular.. but popularity was different back in the day.. there was more quality content and TV was the only real form of entertainment.. no youtube, no internet... so people watched almost all shows or atleast watched more shows than they do now... so the overall viewing numbers were far more distributed than the concentrated burst numbers you see now for shows like Wandavision or Mandalorian...
In prior decades, TV shows meant so much more because they were the ONLY option for video entertainment, and the whole country watched the shows at the same time..To be on TV was a much bigger deal
Just discovered this channel. Absolutely love it!
Good to have you back.
Had to laugh when The Rings of Power popped up for a split second on the bottom and then disappeared, lol
same lol
NCIS really killing it!
Stranger Things and Simpsons not being so long on the list was really surprising.
Stranger Things and many of the Netflix series suffer from the long delays between series releases. Netflix is not as big and powerful as they make out to be going by this data and as they say eyeballs is everything with TV
There's probably some shows that floated outside the top 10 for a very long time. Like house. It was ranked like number 12 for 7 years
Wow this was so interesting !!!!! THANK U FOR FINALLY UPLOADING!! X
Hope you enjoyed it!
Please Data owl. Don't leave us again. It was cold and dark without you.
Damn.
@@DataIsBeautifulOfficial XD
Interesting as always. Some of these 80s shows were fun.
I just started watching your videos. Love them & you do a great job with the graphics.
Welcome!
The music is just A1. The way it builds. Brings back the years in your mind as they go by. Absolutely brilliant.
Agree
The way squid game went to the top , wow
And only by word of mouth
Nice! I love that the top is like 50M and how NCIS just stays in the top 10, like people are truly addicted to that junk (my dad is one of them).
props to you for compiling all the streaming, TV viewership estimates, and pirating data! glad to have you back!
That show honestly kinda peaked a decade ago. It was genuinely great for a good stretch there, but at this point I feel like itself become that thing people watch because sunk cost.
@@Tyler_W its kinda like the simpsons honestly, pretty good for a few years and then goes to shit.
Seeing NCIS at the top during it’s prime years brings a tear to my eyes
I’m surprised by two things: I knew NCIS was popular, but didn’t realize it was quite so strong for so long
I really thought Stranger Things would have been more impressive ratings wise based on the social hype around it
Yes to Stranger Things
NBC and CBS still reigning since the 80's, even with streaming platforms on fire these days... Insane.
Boomers.
I missed this channel 😭
Same 🥺😖🙏
Props to "Murder She Wrote" for being in the charts for so long.
I loved the nanny and 3rd rock from the sun they were 2 shows I didn’t want to miss ❤❤
The updated top 10 list was great, but I would love to see a top 15 or top 20.
It would be challenging to view more than a Top 10 list on a phone. However it would be so cool to see. for example, Orange Is The New Black was a favorite show of mine that barely cracked the top ten but IMO was top 20 for a long time. A top 20 list would have more streaming content on it from the mid 90s to present… it would be cool to see. Thanks for the great top 10 video
There are proper Computers to watch videos with and there are tablets, so this would be no problem. A phone is for using with Telegram, Signal, using webradio and calling other people, there is no need to watch videos on a 8cm screen if there are loads of sensible other options.
@@deineroehrebecause a phone is a miniature version of those, and has more day to day use than the others for the reasons you stated a phone is used for, so why carry 2-3 devices when you can have all in one?
Super well done. It was timed well enough I felt like I got a lot out of it.
Quite a few surprises in there. For instance, I had no clue NCIS was that popular, that thing is a power house. I also found it interesting no Marvel Disney+ shows cracked this list after Loki.
I love some of the older shows too, like Frasier and the Golden Girls, but I was waiting around for NCIS to come lol. I knew it wouldn't leave the top 3 once it showed up at the top. The show keeps evolving, but it never falters.
The last time I saw your video, I was still in college.
Now I'm in a full time job since a year. Time flies so fast.
oh cool!
shout out to 2018 when we all randomly got obsessed with chicago
Surprised Friends and especially Fresh Prince of Bel Air didn't top the US rankings in the '90s... Because over here in the UK, Friends and Fresh Prince were the biggest US sitcoms we watched in the '90s.
Glad you are back! :)
Out of all these shows, The Simpsons still on the air. Amazing.
Was Simpsons even on there?
I'm shocked at the staying power of NCIS
We all :)
So glad you're back! Still drives me crazy that bar color is just random and not used to convey more information. Could show networks, or genre, or something. Please!
I played with it a lot. Some graphs just get too messy.
Agreed, networks would be an excellent use of color!
Maybe have the bar color go grey when a show's run ends (to make it clear why it's dropping down through the chart)?
I never thought an infographic would fascinate me so much. It's amazing how we started with almost all comedies and ended up with almost all hard dramas. With the rise of streaming things seemed to shift faster as well.
Agree
Everyone is offended by everything now. Tell a joke and all hell will break loose from the left and the right.
Love the post, graphics are amazing
Glad you like them!
Television was much more popular back in the 80s-90s. The internet took its place nowadays.
Agree.
Now I’m hearing this new Netflix show ‘Wednesday’ is dominating..probably would be the next one on top of list.
The Last of Us is the next one.
Seinfeld dominating Friends right until its very end brought a smile to my face.
I was watching the trends among types of shows. At the 80s and early 90s it was almost all comedies at the top, with Murder She Wrote hanging out among them. Then ER came along and the whole landscape shifted to hardcore drama. Producers learned they could get a much more reliable audience draw with a drama than with a comedy.
I was really surprised that Breaking Bad was never number 1. Pretty much everyone I talk to considers it the greatest show of all time.
According to Bob Odenkirk when the show first came on alot of people didn't watch until season 4 on Netflix then the final season really hit off.
That would be Sopranos
didnt know the mandalorian was THAT popular
These
Are
FUN TO WATCH! Thanks!
i missed you welcome back
Thanks man
Honestly surprised no 90s Trek is in this list. Some of the best TV ever made, especially Deep Space 9.
Star-Trek usually was in the top 4 or 5 for it's time slot and around 20 for overall weekly numbers.
Yeah, thinking the same thing.
it's an extremely narrow audience, and tbh, 90s star trek shows are NOT great.
@@TJMiton I respect your opinion even though it's wrong and you've clearly never watched them
@@adscott27 Next Generation and Deep Space 9 were awesome. Deep Space 9 was important for showing tv executives that people would indeed watch multi-episode long arcs on tv (as opposed to episodic shows), it paved the way for future shows like GoT.
This is amazing! 😊I loved how Game of Thrones, NCIS, and Bing Bang Theory fought for the top spot for long while. Would be nice if you can make a mini version of the last few years. I know friends who would love this but won't sit through a 10-min video 😄
They can skip to the end :)
Just tell them it feels like three minutes 😉
That's sad that they won't sit through a 10 minute video.
Yes. Friends, TBBT, and House MD 🔥🔥🔥
I expected a couple of shows to be ranked WAY higher on this list:
- Columbo
- A-Team
- Baywatch
- Knight Rider
- Married... with children
- Star Trek - TNG, DS9 & VOY
- Buffy
- South Park
- King of Queens
- How I met your mother (like, srsly WTF?!? I expected this to be #1 at some point)
- Stranger Things
Some of those weren't even on that list oO
Congratulations on becoming a father! So happy for you!
Thank you!
Crazy how all the comedy sit-coms disappeared. Sad.
I found it weird that Scrubs, brooklyn 99 and How I met your mother didn't even visit the list.
This has been very helpful. I see now why I stopped watching TV in the mid 90's.
Good to see you are back, thought you’d never come back.
Came to visit just to tell you that uh you are gonna be surpassed soon and no longer be the #1 most subscribed stats channel…
The biggest comeback in Ranking's History!
NCIS is the type of show you watch when you jump on the sofa for a quick pause
Strong showing from Blue Bloods since its debut. Love that show.
It's interesting. Procedural shows like NCIS, CSI, Chicago Med/PD/Fire, Blue Bloods... they stay on the top 10 for years, decades even. All these flash in the pan streaming shows last a year, sometimes less.