Here Are The Top 21 TV Shows Of 2021, Most Are On Netflix

This was a very good year for TV with entertaining series that took us out of our current pandemic-ridden reality and into the wild worlds of some very amusing characters.

According to Whip Media’s TV and movie viewership tracking app TV Time, the most-viewed shows this year included 15 Netflix series, four from Disney+ and one each from Hulu and Apple TV+ and there is a mix of various international favorites, including a Spanish heist drama and a South Korean survival drama. There were also beloved American and British series that TV lovers binge-watched en masse and discussed passionately on social media which also helped garner views.

With 19 million global users, TV Time was able to track the data by compiling its users self-reporting that they viewed an episode. Of note, there are certain fan favorites that didn’t make this list such as Hellbound. The South Korean horror series debuted with its first six-episode season on Netflix on November 19 and immediately became a sensation and even surpassed Squid Game with 43.48 million hours viewed within its first week following its U.S. release.

Though Hellbound was No. 2 on TV Time’s list of most-viewed K-Dramas, it didn’t make this list solely because of its late entrance into the race and because it was a newer series with just one season and very few episodes to binge. TV Time measured which shows had the greatest share of views in the calendar year period-to-date and those titles that came out later in the year are at somewhat of a disadvantage in that there has been less time for their content to be consumed. Thus, those shows with a large library have an advantage as there are more episodes to watch. 

According to TV Time, these are the Top 21 most-viewed SVOD series for 2021 as binge-watched from January 1 through December 16 and the American fantasy Lucifer tops the list.

1. Lucifer (Netflix, Six Seasons, 93 Episodes)
2. Money Heist (Netflix, Five Seasons, 41 Episodes)
3. Squid Game (Netflix, One Season, 9 Episodes)
4. Elite (Netflix, Four Seasons, 32 Episodes)
5. WandaVision (Disney+, One Season, 9 Episodes)
6. You (Netflix, Three Seasons, 30 Episodes)
7. The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu, Four Seasons, 46 Episodes)
8. Lupin (Netflix, Two Seasons, 10 Episodes)
9. Sex Education (Netflix, Three Seasons, 24 Episodes)
10. Loki (Disney+, One Season, 6 Episodes)
11. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Disney+, One Season, 6 Episodes)
12. The Crown (Netflix, Four Seasons, 40 Episodes)
13. Cobra Kai (Netflix, Three Seasons, 30 Episodes)
14. Ted Lasso (AppleTV+, Two Seasons, 22 Episodes)
15. Atypical (Netflix, Four Seasons, 38 Episodes)
16. Who Killed Sara? (Netflix, Two Seasons, 18 Episodes)
17. What If…? (Disney+, One Season, 9 Episodes)
18. Bridgerton (Netflix, One Season, 8 Episodes)
19. Locke & Key (Netflix, Two Seasons, 20 Episodes)
20. Virgin River (Netflix, Three Seasons, 30 Episodes)
21. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix, Two Seasons, 36 Episodes)

Stay tuned for the list of the most-anticipated new and returning series of 2022. One thing is certain: Streaming platforms are well aware of the insatiable appetite of subscribers demanding high quality content so you can rest assured that the coming year will include some incredible shows!