7 Sleeper Hits of the Streaming Wars
Slow burns & surprises: These shows made fewer headlines but ended up on top
As a guy who dives into data every week, I often get asked the question, “Hey, what’s doing well in streaming?” And when I respond with the same-old chart-topping titles everyone has heard of — Squid Game! Landman! Fallout! —They ask, No, but what’s the hidden gem that no one knows about? What great genre or format should the streamers and studios be developing next?
As much as I wish I possessed some sort of Masonic knowledge, I’m analyzing the same viewership data as everyone else. If some breakout show or disruptive genre had snuck up on us and was secretly incredibly, vastly popular, you probably would have heard of it, right?
As I often remind folks, entertainment is still a “winner takes all” endeavor. The most popular shows and films and YouTube channels and songs aren’t just a little bigger than everything else — they’re multiples more popular. As a reminder, Minecraft has made as much money at the U.S. box office as the 28th to 100th biggest films this year put together.)
But sometimes shows do fly under the radar, surprising even me at how popular they become (I attribute a lot of this to the tastes of people who work in media and the kind of shows they, for example, like to recap and not). Even in today’s shattered media ecosystem, some shows quietly become monster sleeper hits. Today, I’m focusing on shows that came out either in 2024 or 2025, using the three viewership charts that put out weekly top 10 lists publicly: Nielsen, Luminate and Samba TV.
Here are my seven sleepers, none of which had the “buzz” that gets press per se, and one that started out so slow that it didn’t seem to stand a chance. I’m providing the hard data that shows what worked and why and on what platform:
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