10 Best Netflix TV Shows of 2025, Ranked

In 2025, Netflix had a year that perfectly sums up the current state of streaming: not everything was a hit, but when it worked, it worked on a massive scale. Several films premiered to strong audience interest, but when it comes to TV shows, the conversation moves to a completely different level. Stranger Things, Black Mirror, Wednesday, Adolescence, Cassandra, The Witcher, You, American Primeval, Emily in Paris, Squid Game — so many farewells, major new seasons, decisive chapters, and breakout launches that quickly became audience phenomena and truly made an impact throughout the year. But which of them stood above the rest? With that in mind, we put together this list.

Here are the 10 best Netflix TV shows of 2025, ranked from worst to best. And it’s worth noting that while viewership absolutely matters for this selection, it’s not the only factor: time spent in the Top 10, audience reaction, global impact, and even negative feedback all play a role in where each series lands.

10) Cobra Kai

The Karate Kid spin-off came to an end this year with its sixth season, and for many viewers, it stands as one of the strongest series finales around — a show that ultimately proved everything it needed to prove. Cobra Kai follows Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) decades after the events of the original movie, and it works well beyond the ’80s thanks to the audience’s attachment to these characters and the dynamic of a rivalry that has always powered the franchise. Even without reinventing its formula, the series delivered exactly what fans wanted: plenty of conflict, just the right amount of drama, and carefully balanced doses of nostalgia.

Still, when placed next to the biggest shows of the year, Cobra Kai lands at the bottom of the ranking. Despite its historical importance to Netflix, it simply doesn’t carry the same weight as other 2025 standouts — several productions ended up feeling more impactful and more memorable. Overall, this placement is less about dismissing the show’s quality and more about recognizing it as a show rewarded for consistency and longevity.

9) The Beast in Me

Here, Netflix managed to deliver a classic psychological thriller that’s extremely well executed — and, as a result, highly addictive. The Beast in Me follows Aggie Wiggs (Claire Danes), a writer who becomes involved with a man possibly connected to a murder. From there, the story builds a relationship fueled by fascination, manipulation, and danger. For many viewers, a slower pace usually works against a show, but in this case, it actually strengthens the psychological buildup. The series leans more cerebral. Besides, what makes it work are the performances, which are on another level.

It’s easy to get hooked on the plot, even when the script takes more familiar paths. That’s why The Beast in Me earns its spot on this list: it became one of Netflix’s strongest audience performers of the year and stayed in the Top 10 for several weeks. Still, it was a solid hit rather than a defining pop-culture moment. Compared to other titles on the platform, its success was consistent and impressive — just not quite as overwhelming as the shows ranked above it.

8) Sean Combs: The Reckoning

2024 was defined by controversy, and the loudest one was tied to the music industry, placing musician and producer P. Diddy at the center of global attention. Then, at the very end of 2025, Netflix made waves with the release of Sean Combs: The Reckoning, a documentary series that examines the accusations against the artist while unpacking topics of power, influence, and also institutional silence. But more than its polished structure, what truly propelled the show was the urgency of its subject matter and the audience’s immediate interest in a story that quite literally shook the world.

Its success is undeniable. In its first six days, the series reached around 21.8 million views and, in several countries, climbed to the top of Netflix’s global rankings (even briefly surpassing Stranger Things). Still, Sean Combs: The Reckoning lands in this position because its impact is driven more by the moment and the magnitude of the topic than by its formal execution. It’s essential viewing, but its strength comes more from relevance than from craftsmanship.

7) Sirens

Sometimes, no one really knows what a series is going to become. It arrives quietly, and before you realize it, far more people are watching than anyone expected. That was the case with Sirens, which follows Devon (Meghann Fahy), a woman who infiltrates a seemingly perfect elite environment in search of her sister, Simone (Milly Alcock), only to discover that everything there revolves around power, rivalry, and manipulation. The story blends psychological drama with social commentary without drifting too far from pure entertainment — and that balance was its biggest strength, making it accessible to a broad audience.

When it premiered, it hit like an avalanche. Word of mouth spread fast, pushing the show higher in Netflix’s rankings almost immediately. In just four days, it reached the number one spot and became one of the most-watched series of the week. Sirens stands out as one of the year’s strongest new bets, but it didn’t maintain that momentum for very long, unfortunately.

6) The Diplomat

It’s a fact that House of Cards left a lasting mark on Netflix, and since it ended, many viewers have felt the absence of a strong political drama. That gap led to The Diplomat, which returned for its third season in 2025 and reaffirmed itself as one of the platform’s most reliable shows. The series follows Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), an American diplomat dealing with international crises while also trying to keep her personal life from falling apart, using foreign policy as its main engine of tension.

And rather than losing steam, the show stayed sharp. The writing remained tight in the new episodes, and the audience that was already invested stayed loyal, with very little backlash or meaningful negative reception. The Diplomat has clearly positioned itself as a leader within its subgenre, which is why it remains one of the best series of the year. It may not dominate online conversations, but in terms of steady viewership and long-term engagement, it’s one of Netflix’s most dependable performers.

5) Last Samurai Standing

Last Samurai Standing represents Netflix at its most strategic when it comes to global audience appeal. Set in 19th-century Japan, the series places samurai warriors in a deadly competition for survival and a cash reward, blending historical drama with a familiar survival-game structure (one that inevitably invites comparisons to Squid Game). It’s a clean, high-concept premise, easy to understand and even easier to sell across different markets. That accessibility is its strength, but also its limitation, because the show doesn’t radically reinvent the genre or dive deep into every thematic layer, which makes it hard to justify a top-tier ranking.

Still, it absolutely deserves recognition. Last Samurai Standing pulled off something remarkable for a brand-new series, earning a rare 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes and becoming the first Japanese show nominated for Best Foreign Language Series at the Critics’ Choice Awards. That kind of reception is no small feat. Even if it plays things safe narratively, the execution, performances, and global response prove that Netflix’s formula-driven bets can still deliver real prestige when done right.

4) Squid Game

This is where Netflix reaches a level that’s genuinely hard to beat. Squid Game came to an end in 2025, cementing itself as one of the platform’s biggest productions ever. Its third season wrapped up the story of the deadly games that pit desperate people against one another for money, while sticking to the blend of social commentary and spectacle that originally pulled in a worldwide audience. For weeks, the series was everywhere online, spawned a new wave of memes, and got people talking nonstop about its ending (not to mention the announcement of a spin-off already in development).

That said, it wasn’t a flawless season from a storytelling standpoint. Still, breaking global premiere records and posting the highest number of views ever recorded by Netflix in a 10-day window (across all languages) makes it clear just how massive this show remains. Squid Game was one of the most-watched series of the year, and very few productions can mobilize the entire world with every new season. Even so, it no longer carried the same shock value as its first outing, with a noticeable wear to the formula holding it back from ranking even higher.

3) Wednesday

A lot of people may not have loved Wednesday Season 2 as much as the first batch of episodes, especially when you compare the level of impact that initially turned the show into a massive hit. Still, when you look at the bigger picture, it’s impossible to ignore how well it performed. The series continued to pull in a huge audience and secured its place among Netflix’s most-watched titles of 2025. The story once again follows Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) at a school for so-called “outcasts,” blending mystery, dark humor that fits the character perfectly, and plenty of teenage drama along the way.

In total, the season amassed 119.3 million views and officially became the fourth most-watched English-language series in Netflix history. Still, it had a mixed critical reception, which might seem questionable to place Wednesday in the Top 3. But the reality is that it maintained strong multigenerational appeal, faced less audience backlash than many other major releases, and, most importantly, delivered a sense of reasonable continuity. Viewers are still invested in where the story is going. It just wasn’t quite as essential or defining as the two shows ranked above it.

2) Adolescence

This felt like a masterclass in how to make a show that knows exactly what it’s doing and is confident enough to fully commit to it. Who didn’t hear about Adolescence in 2025? The story follows teenager Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), who is accused of a violent crime, and uses that premise to explore the emotional and social fallout through an intense, claustrophobic narrative. That approach, paired with powerhouse performances, triggered an immediate reaction from audiences around the world.

As a brand-new show, Adolescence exploded out of the gate, pulling in over 140 million views in its first days alone (surpassing Stranger Things Season 4 by that metric). It broke audience records for a limited series, became Netflix’s most-watched show globally during the first half of the year, earned widespread praise for its directing and writing, got people talking about some uncomfortable social issues, and went on to win major awards, including multiple Emmys (along with 2026 Golden Globe nominations). Adolescence made an enormous impact in an incredibly short amount of time.

1) Stranger Things

The top spot belongs to Stranger Things, and the entire world knows it. After nearly a decade, the series finally brought its story to a close with its fifth season, ending 2025 on an enormous high and becoming, even before it fully concluded, the biggest television event in Netflix history. Its cultural weight is unmatched, following a group of kids facing supernatural forces in a small ’80s town. No other show has ever combined so many elements at once: massive viewership, global frenzy, instantly remarkable characters, and especially years of deep emotional investment from audiences.

Stranger Things is Netflix’s defining show. With the release of its final chapter, it broke records previously set by its own seasons that had dominated the platform for years — and even crashed the service. On top of that, every previous season surged back into the platform’s global Top 10 at the same time ahead of Volume 1. What we’re talking about here isn’t just the premiere of a final season — it was Netflix stopping the world for a moment.

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