Netflix's second-most watched show in 2025 was streamed for 840,300,000 hours but people called it 'pointless'
The series disappointed some fans, and its follow-up didn't fare much better
Netflix has offered insight into its most successful titles of the year so far in its new Engagement Report, but one particular series that was streamed for a whopping 840,300,000 hours has been described by some fans as 'pointless'.
With our feet well and truly planted in the second half of 2025, Netflix shared its data from the first six months of the year in the report released on July 17.
The insights reveal what titles have been most successful on the streaming service and exactly how many hours viewers spent binging them - but we all know you can't please everybody, so even some of the streamer's biggest wins have been hit with some backlash.
It will probably come as no surprise to you that the most-watched show so far this year is the British series Adolescence, which told the chilling story of what happened after a young girl was found dead, and a 13-year-old boy stood accused of her murder.
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Created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, the series earned the top spot after amassing 144,800,000 views on Netflix, with viewers spending 555,100,000 hours dedicated to the series.
The second-most watched title was streamed for even more hours - more than 35,000,000 days' worth, to put it into perspective - and amassed 117,300,000 views.
The series that took second place was no other than Squid Game season two, which was actually released right towards the end of December 2024, meaning a lot of people likely didn't get chance to watch it until the new year.
But while a lot of excited fans tuned into the series following the huge success of season one, not everyone was enamoured with the sequel.
Sharing their thoughts on X, formerly Twitter, one person wrote: "Just finished watching #SquidGame2 and to sum it up everything was really predictable, no plot twists or anything. messy writing, characters and sigh... I expected more after waiting for so long and now we prob have to wait another 3 years? hmm."
Another added: "Squid Game 2 is completely pointless? Effectively a gigantic trailer for “Series 3”. Why do streaming sites intentionally drag s**t out?!"
Despite some suggestions that there might be a long wait for the third season of Squid Game, the series actually arrived on June 27, rounding off the first half of 2025.
Unfortunately, however, the new season hasn't done much to win back fans.
"Squid Game Season 2 & 3 feel pointless," one person commented, adding. "Gi-hun’s mission should’ve been to expose the VIPs and end the game instead, we got another round of games. Lazy writing, just cashing in on Season 1’s success."
The third series of Squid Game marked the end to the highly-viewed show. All seasons are available to stream on Netflix now.
The most viewed Netflix shows in the first half of 2025
- Adolescence: Limited Series - 144,800,000 views
- Squid Game: Season 2 - 117,300,000 views
- Squid Game: Season 3 - 71,500,000 views
- Zero Day: Limited Series - 61,300,000 views
- Missing You: Limited Series - 58,000,000 views
- American Murder: Gabby Petito: Season 1 - 56,100,000 views
- Ms. Rachel: Season 1 - 53,400,000 views
- Sirens: Limited Series - 53,300,000 views
- The Night Agent: Season 2 - 53,200,00 views
- Ginny & Georgia: Season 3 - 48,100,000 views
Topics: Netflix, Streaming, Adolescence, Squid Game, Stephen Graham
Emily Brown