Maha Yassin
Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services worldwide, if not THE most popular one! They produce hundreds of shows each year, but not every single show goes viral. Every couple of months, a show would just shock the world. Every household will be binging it nonstop, and almost everyone you know will be watching. These are what are called the top Netflix shows.
Even if you are someone who doesn’t like to follow trends or watch a show just because everyone else is watching it, these top Netflix shows will eventually end up on your list. It’s tough to ignore a show that millions of people are watching (we’ve tried!). When a Netflix show is popular, it almost feels like it’s chasing you, whispering, “Watch me, watch me, you know you want to”.
How to Know the Top Netflix Shows?
Netflix shows users the top Netflix Shows that are trending in their country daily. But what we are talking about here is the full Netflix shows that the whole world is watching. The shows that have the highest viewing rate of all time. No matter if they came out yesterday or five years ago. These top Netflix shows proved themselves and held their rank among the hundreds of shows released every year.
Netflix counts the views of each show after 91 days of release and ranks it accordingly. After that, they update their ranks weekly to reflect the viewers’ current favourite shows. Top Netflix shows can slightly change every other week or if something new is released and gets super popular.
Today, we’re going to share with you the top Netflix shows right now! These shows have barely moved from their ranking since you got it. Only sometimes switching the ranks between each other. Do you have any guesses as to what these shows are?
Top 5 Netflix Shows of All Time
Let’s play a fun little game as you read this article! Write down the five top Netflix shows you think will be on this list. After reading the article, check out how many you got correct! If you’re an avid Netflix watcher, this won’t be too hard. Let’s start!
Bridgerton
Released on 25 December 2020
Number of seasons: 2
Cast: Phoebe Dynevore, Jonathan Bailey, Simone Ashley, and Nicola Coughlan
It’s a pretty well-known fact that people love a good period drama! Something about being transported to another time and seeing how people used to socialise and live their lives back then is so enchanting, not to mention the gorgeous outfits we can no longer wear because, of practicality, Netflix took all those excellent elements of period dramas and added some sexy vibes and a lot of diversity to create one of their most successful shows of all time, Bridergton.
The top Netflix show is based on the book series of the same name by Julia Quinn. The books tell the story of the Bridgerton siblings as each one of them finds true love in Regency-era London. There are eight books, each focusing on one Bridgerton sibling story, and Netflix is adapting them into eight seasons to give each sibling their own time to shine. So far, there have been two seasons, the first about Daphne Bridgerton and the second about Anthony Bridgerton.
Both seasons have been very successful and popular among viewers, with almost two billion views worldwide! The show’s success even encouraged Netflix to produce an original prequel story focusing on the marriage of Queen Charlotte to the King. If you haven’t watched Bridgerton yet, we seriously envy you! You can now experience this super romantic show and one of the top Netflix shows by binging two whole seasons and a spin-off. Season 3, focusing on the love story of Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton, will be released in December 2023.
Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
Released on 21 September 2022
Number of seasons: 1 (Limited series)
Cast: Evan Peters, Niecy Nash, Molly Ringwald, and Colin Ford
For some reason, honestly scary and uncomfortable, some people tend to really enjoy stories about serial killers and gruesome murders. And this number of people is not even small. It’s big enough to land a show such as Dahmer a top spot as one of the top Netflix shows of all time!
Dhamer –based on actual events– tells the story of American serial killer Jeffery Dahmer and his various crimes across the US between 1978 and 1991. The show explores the unstable childhood of Jeffery Dahmer as well as his gradual murderous interests as he grows up. Throughout the show, we see Dahmer as he lures men and young boys into his apartment, drugs them and then eventually kills them. The show also explores the incompetence of the police and law enforcement, who had multiple chances to catch Dahmer but never did until one of the victims could escape and alert them.
Despite there being many controversies around the show, including the fact the families of Dahmer’s victims never consented to their children’s stories being told for entertainment, Dahmer was still a very successful Netflix show. It got over one billion views on Netflix worldwide and became one of the top Netflix shows only 60 days after its release.
Wednesday
Released on 23 November 2022
Number of seasons: 1
Cast: Jenna Ortega, Emma Myers, Christina Ricci, and Gwendoline Christie
Who of us has not spent a good portion of our childhood watching The Addams Family? It was basically the only sort of horror show allowed for children as it was adapted into many scary versions but still appropriate for young kids. Everyone had their own favourite Addams family member, from Morticia to Gomez to even Thing! But there was always this one member who was so effortlessly scary who just gave everyone the chills whenever she spoke. We’re talking about Wednesday Addams.
Netflix saw the potential in Wednesday Addams and believed she could carry a whole show by herself. And to prove that their vision would work, they hired no other than the whimsical horror master himself, Tim Burton. Burton had an idea for Wednesday, and it was great! Netflix’s Wednesday is the story of teenage Wednesday Addams as she finally leaves home to join the infamous Nevermore Academy. But with a talent for bringing trouble wherever she goes, Wednesday immediately finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery that only she can solve.
Wednesday is a great show for teens and adults alike. It’s rated TV-14 for apparent fear and horror elements, but still, it doesn’t go too far to be too scary for young adults. The show carries the whimsical vibes of The Addams Family very well, as we get cameos from every family member. We also get to see the original Wednesday, Christina Ricci, in a supporting role. With 1.7 billion views only for its very first season, Wednesday is a rightful member of the top Netflix shows club! And we cannot wait to see how big the next season will be.
Stranger Things
Released on 15 July 2016
Number of seasons: 4
Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, and Sadie Sink
You must have been living under a rock not to have heard of Stranger Things. The mystery/science-fiction show has taken the world by storm since the release of its very first season back in 2016. The 1980s vibes of the show combined with the horror and science fiction elements gave the show a very unique perspective. Stranger Things has been such a massive success for Netflix that it carried on for four whole seasons and will still have one more final season (sometimes in -hopefully- not distant future!)
Stranger Things’ story takes place in the fictional American town of Hawkins, Indiana. The American government has been conducting secret tests on a group of children to give them superpowers and use them as weapons against their cold war with Russia. One day, one of these children, Eleven, manages to escape the lab and finds herself in Hawkins. At the same time, Will Byers, a young kid from Hawkins, goes missing. While his friends look for him, they instead stumble upon Eleven hiding in the woods. They decide to help her find a place to stay as she helps them find Will.
This is only the story of the first season of Stranger Things. As the seasons go by, the plot thickens, and children, now teenagers, and their parents find themselves in the middle of a government conspiracy they must uncover. Stranger Things has over five billion views across all seasons on Netflix. It is easily one of Netflix’s most successful shows and has caused a good part of the enormous success of the platform.
As one of the top Netflix shows since 2016, Netflix will not let Stranger Things go so quickly. They have already announced that after the upcoming final season, the platform has many plans for spin-offs.
Squid Game
Released on 17 September 2021
Number of seasons: 1
Cast: Lee Jung-Jae, Wi Ha-Joon, Jung Ho-Yeon, and Park Hae-Soo
To everyone’s utter surprise, even to Netflix, Netflix’s number one most popular show ever made is NOT an English-language show! It is no other than the Korean sensation Squid Game. Most of Netflix’s views come from the United States of America, and to be honest, Americans are not usually open to reading subtitles —ask Bong Joon Ho! However, Squid Game was able to warm its way into the hearts of 2.2 billion viewers worldwide and make everyone take another look at Korean TV!
The thrilling show tells the story of a poor man who finds himself chosen to participate in a deadly competition. Seong Gi-Hun is a gambler and loser whose bad habits with money have put him and his family in one horrible situation after the other. One day, he is approached by a stranger who offers him the chance to win a huge cash prize by joining an unknown competition.
Seeing no harm in trying, Gi-Hun accepts the invitation. He finds himself, along with hundreds of cash-strapped people, in the middle of a deadly competition where only one winner will survive and win the ultimate prize of 45 million Korean Wons (equivalent to $4.5 million). In a place where you cannot trust anyone, Gi-Hon must find the balance of keeping his humanity while surviving this deadly children’s game.
Squid Game is a thrilling show to watch. It deals with subjects of violence, death, betrayal and how far a person would go to survive. Each of the contestants in the show has their own reason to risk their lives for the prize money. And you, as a viewer, will have a hard time deciding who is good and who is terrible in this deadly game. As one of Netflix’s top shows —actually THE top show, Squid Game was able to break language barriers and prove that good stories exist all around the world and not just in Hollywood. All we have to do is break the two-inch barriers or subtitles.
So, how many shows did you get right? Did you watch all of these super popular Netflix shows, or are there ones you are still yet to watch? Anyhow, these top Netflix Shows are all very different from each other. That shows that people have very diverse tastes and are willing to watch any genre of shows as long as it’s entertaining and well made!