What Are The Most-Watched Movies On The Major Streaming Services? Here’s Your Guide

Streaming services release a handful of movies every week, offering a constant flow of entertainment for the audiences.

However, they aren’t always transparent in their metrics or what qualifies as someone having watched a film. Quite often, it’s something of a PR exercise as they scream from the rooftops: “This is the most-watched movie in the history of our company!” Then, there are others who tend to keep quiet, such as Max has done in recent times  – whether it be because the numbers haven’t improved since it was known as HBO Max, or it’s a business decision to stay hush. 

Resultantly, it’s important to take into context that streaming services only release the info they want the viewers and press to know. And these figures don’t paint the full picture of what’s taking place on each platform. Nonetheless, let’s take a look at the most-watched movies across the major streaming services, according to the information at hand. 

‘Red Notice’ is Netflix’s most-watched movie

According to Netflix’s Tudum, 2021’s Red Notice remains its most-watched movie, having been streamed over 230 million times and having viewers watch over 454 million hours. It’s interesting to see that the heist comedy starring Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot sits up top this list. Especially since critics bashed it, the fans enjoyed it for the most part, but no one could call it the best or worst film of all time. In fact, does anyone even remember what it was about?

Undoubtedly, the star power of Johnson, Reynolds, and Gadot helped to propel the interest in this movie at the time. That said, it’s weird to see how something like Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which also has a formidable cast but is a much better movie, isn’t higher than Red Notice here.

‘Moana’ continues to dominate Disney+

Moana delighted the world in 2016, dancing its way to over $687 million at the global box office. Yet, even greater success awaited the movie with the launch of Disney+. As one of the Disney movies available on the platform from the inception, Moana slayed the likes of Marvel and Star Wars to become the most streamed movie on Disney+ – and quite possibly across any platform.

According to Bloomberg, viewers have watched over 80 billion minutes of Moana and the film has been seen a jaw-breaking 748 million times. It’s an incredible achievement considering how the movie was three years old by the time it arrived on Disney+; however, the rewatchability of Moana proves to be a juggernaut. Imagine what the numbers for Moana 2 will be like once it arrives on the platform in 2025.

‘Road House’ knocked its way to the top of Prime Video

Let’s get one thing straight here: The 2024 Road House reboot is not a better movie than the 1989 original. However, it doesn’t seem to matter to audiences, as the Jake Gyllenhall-led action-fest punched its way to over 50 million viewers in its first two weekends. As per Deadline, this makes it the most-watched Prime Video original movie in the streaming platform’s history.

What’s particularly interesting about this movie is how there was a major dispute between director Doug Liman and Amazon MGM Studios about Road House skipping a theatrical release and heading straight to streaming. While it’s open for debate if the movie would have been a box office hit or not, it’s undeniable that it did the magical numbers for Prime Video.

‘Wolfs’ roars its way to the top of Apple TV+

On paper, 2024’s Wolfs has it all: A sensational director in Jon Watts, the powerhouse duo of Brad Pitt and George Clooney, and a funny yet exciting story about two fixers who team up against their better instincts. Naturally, it turned into a mega hit for Apple TV+, becoming the most-watched movie on the platform, according to Deadline. However, Apple was reluctant to share figures about the numbers, so it’s a “trust me, bro” situation.

Jokes aside, it would make sense for Wolfs to be leading the pack as it’s arguably Apple TV+’s biggest blockbuster yet. Unfortunately, it’s also another film that saw the director and production company at loggerheads over the distribution model. Watts announced he wouldn’t be returning for the sequel, despite Apple announcing he would be, because of the decision to move from a full theatrical screening to limited and streaming. He told Deadline: “The truth is that Apple didn’t cancel the Wolfs sequel, I did, because I no longer trusted them as a creative partner.”

Welcome to ‘Good Burger 2’ – home of the most-watched movie on Paramount+

Paramount+ has been around since 2021 and released a number of original films such as Secret Headquarters and Pet Sematary: Bloodlines. However, its most successful movie is a 2023 sequel to a 1997 cheesy comedy that’s all about the stars of that era: Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell.

According to TheWrap, Good Burger 2 flipped its way to the top of the most-watched movie charts on Paramount+ after three days of viewing, leapfrogging the numbers previously set by Pet Sematary: Bloodlines by nearly 50%. It might not even be the best film released by the streaming service, but it proves one thing: If a movie appeals to the whole family, there’s a higher chance that more households will watch it.