Every State’s Favorite Show in 2022

In the past three years, streaming services have grown exponentially and pumped billions of dollars into content. In 2021, there were 559 original scripted television series.¹ (That doesn’t account for reality TV series or reruns of older shows on streaming.)

There’s no way to watch every new show that drops, so we looked at the most watched shows on the three most popular streaming platforms: Netflix, Max, and Disney+. Collectively, the three services have over 460 million global subscribers. Plus, with more than 13,000 titles to choose from, we wanted to know which shows were each state’s favorites!

‘We have never been happier!’ Euphoria was #1

The most popular show in the US was Euphoria. HBO’s show was a favorite in 38 states. Created by Sam Levinson and starring Zendaya, Euphoria averaged 16.3 million viewers for its most recent season in 2022. Its viewing stats made it HBO’s second-most-watched show since 2004.²

• Euphoria was the most popular show on the West Coast.
• The season finale drew 6.6 million viewers to HBO and Max, while the premiere hit 19 million viewers at the end of ten weeks.2
• In our ranked-choice analysis, Euphoria was in the top three in 45 states.
• Vermont, Massachusetts, and North Dakota were the states most obsessed with Euphoria.

Euphoria was so popular this year that it beat all past competition, including Manifest (23 states in 2021) and The Umbrella Academy (17 states in 2020 and 45 million viewers in 2019).

Stranger Things have happened…

Are we living in the Upside Down? Netflix’s Stranger Things was not the most popular show in Indiana—but it did claim that title in eight other states. Turns out that the people of Hawkins are more popular outside of Indiana. With the fourth season of Stranger Things releasing supersized episodes in two parts this summer, viewers tuned in and streamed 1.352 billion hours (yes, with a b) of the show in its first 28 days.³

• The season 4 release of Stranger Things scored the largest ever viewership for an English-language series on Netflix and more than doubled the watch hours from Bridgerton season 2.³
• Utahns moved on from Stranger Things to Euphoria after binge watching the Netflix hit last year.
• Far from Hawkins, Stranger Things was the most popular show in Hawaii.
• While North Carolina and North Dakota are Euphoria stans, South Carolina and South Dakota both prefer the spooky vibes of Stranger Things.
• The most obsessed states over Stranger Things were Montana, Maine, and Hawaii.
• We weren’t surprised to see Netflix rank second this year. After all, Netflix has faced subscriber difficulties all year.

We’re moving from the Ozarks into the House of the Dragon

Netflix’s Ozark ended its series run in April, and MAX’s House of the Dragon began just a few months later in August. The shows characterized the battle between MAX and Netflix for TV supremacy, with both shows finding popularity in two states each.

• House of the Dragon set a record with its premiere episode, hitting nearly 10 million viewers, making it the most-watched MAX series premiere ever.⁴
•  According to Nielsen data, viewers streamed 387 million hours of Ozark over its two most-watched weeks.⁵
• Folks in Rhode Island and Arkansas really liked Ozark in its final season.
• Wyoming and Alaska were truly obsessed with House of the Dragon this year.

Can your internet keep up with streaming both shows? Find out with our speed test.

Most popular shows by state

Four shows—and two streaming services—dominated our lists this year. Although there were huge hits on Disney+ and other streaming services this year that didn’t make the cut (Ms. Marvel, Only Murders in the Building, and Yellowstone, anyone?), US viewers really stuck to Max and Netflix for their streaming needs.

Viewers tend to stick to a few streaming platforms—and most also keep their subscriptions with Netflix, Max, or both. What does that mean for the future of streaming? It’s hard to say. A few years ago, there was no Max (although two of this year’s popular streaming shows come from the linear network HBO) and we focused solely on Netflix shows. Times sure have changed.

Meanwhile, Disney+ is gaining subscribers, and Discovery+ is poised to merge with Max in the coming months. Hulu, Peacock, and Paramount+ have strong corporate backing, while Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video have deep pockets to spend on content.

Streaming services will continue to pour billions of dollars into content and advertising, so who knows what this list will look like next year. But we do know that people will keep streaming, and they’ll need internet speed to keep up with the drama.

Methodology

We analyzed the most popular shows on streaming services using Google Trends between 11/2/2021 and 11/2/2022, to discover which shows people in each state searched for the most in 2022. We used Top 10 show data from FlixPatrol to determine the top 4 most popular shows of the year for analysis.

Sources

1. Michael Schneider, Variety, “Peak TV Tally: According to FX Research, A Record 559 Original Scripted Series Aired in 2021,” January 14, 2022. Accessed November 16, 2022.
2. Jennifer Maas, Variety, “‘Euphoria’ Is Now HBO’s Second-Most Watched Show Behind ‘Game of Thrones’,” February 28, 2022. Accessed November 16, 2022.
3. Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, “‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 Final Viewership Comes Within Less Than 300M Hours Of ‘Squid Game’ Record,” August 2, 2022. Accessed November 16, 2022.
4. Selome Hailu, Variety, “‘House of the Dragon’ Episode 10 Sees 9.3 Million Viewers, Biggest HBO Season Finale Since ‘Game of Thrones,’” October 24, 2022. Accessed November 16, 2022.
5. Selome Hailu, Variety, “Jeffrey Dahmer Series ‘Monster’ Debuts on Nielsen Top 10 With 10th Biggest Streaming Week Ever,” October 20, 2022. Accessed November 16, 2022.

Disclaimer

This content was produced by HighSpeedInternet.com and is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by, or associated with any of the brands or properties mentioned.