Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | News | April 9, 2025
Adolescence has knocked the second season of Bridgerton off the all-time most-watched series in the Netflix top ten (English language only), rising now to number four. For once, the algorithm gets it right. The series is devastating (but not wholly depressing), technically brilliant, and features some standout performances from the likes of co-creator Stephen Graham and Owen Cooper. It’s also provoked a ton of discussion. I say that the distinction is “dubious,” however, because its inclusion is a welcome exception on a top ten list that’s otherwise … not that great.
1. Wednesday: Season 1
252.1 million views
2. Stranger Things 4
140.7 million views
3. DAHMER: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
115.6 million views
4. Adolescence
114 million views
5. Bridgerton: Season 1
113.3 million views
6. The Queen’s Gambit: Limited Series
112.8 million views
7. Bridgerton: Season 3
106 million views
8. The Night Agent: Season 1
98.2 million views
9. Fool Me Once: Limited Series
98.2 million views
10. Stranger Things 3
94.8 million views
Aside from The Queen’s Gambit and maybe Bridgerton’s first season, the rest of the list ranges from aggressively mid to outright baffling. Dahmer was controversial for all the wrong reasons, Fool Me Once sucked only marginally less than The Night Agent and the best season of Stranger Things (the first) is not actually among the top ten (it probably precedes whatever metric they use to rank shows now).
So yes, Adolescence making the cut is a big deal, but not just because it pulled in huge numbers. It’s also because it’s one of the few shows on that list that actually deserves to be there. It’s only been out for 24 days, too, and because Netflix counts the first 91 days toward its ranking, it will surpass Dahmerr this week and is poised to rise to number two behind only Wednesday before all is said and done.
For what it’s worth, it was also the top show this week, its fourth on the charts, fending off new releases Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer and the underwhelming premiere of Netflix’s medical drama, Pulse, which entered the charts at number three.
