The streaming takeover of the UK’s viewing habits has continued apace in the latest Ofcom Media Nations Report, although Northern productions have fared well in terms of audience numbers in the 2026 report, with four out of the top 10 most viewed shows having a distinctly Northern flavour.
Overall, four out of the top five most viewed programmes in 2025 (although only half of the top 10) screened on streamers over the course of the year, with Netflix taking the lion’s share with four of the top 10, while Disney+ managed one programme – its live action adaptation of animated feature Moana – at number 6.
We can’t take any Northern credit for the most watched show of the year (unless North Korea wants to chip in), the animated global smash hit Kpop Demon Hunters, which achieved an audience of 24.4m in the UK over the last year for Netflix, but we can take some regional pride in the year’s second most-watched show – Stephen Graham’s gritty teen misogyny drama Adolescence, which has been a regular on these pages over recent months as it conquered audiences and awards shows alike. That was also a Netflix, and pulled in 16m viewers.
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Coming in third, and the most-watched show from a traditional broadcaster of last year, the Scottish-filmed Celebrity Traitors pulled in 14.8m for the BBC, while its non-celebrity stablemate also charted at 6, with a not-too-shabby 10.9m viewers, making Ardross Castle something of a fixture in British living rooms over the last year or so.
Preston animator Nick Park’s Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl was another success for the BBC, and the North, pulling in 10.2m viewers for its hotly anticipated Christmas Day TV Premier.
Another festive special took the BBC’s fourth and final slot in the top 10, with Gavin and Stacey: A Fond Farewell drawing 9.7m on New Year’s Day.
ITV managed a sole slot in the top 10 this year, with E1, S25 of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! clocking up 9.9m viewers for the commercial PSB.
All data is taken from Barb, and covers all individuals aged 4+, viewing on TV sets only. The highest-performing episode per title is featured, based on total cumulative viewing across the whole year, so broadcaster figures include live viewing, recorded playback and BVoD.
The top 10 in full, courtesy Ofcom, looks like this:
