The most Googled TV series of 2025 was Monster: The Ed Gein Story on Netflix, which claimed the top spot globally according to Google’s official Year in Search data. In the United States, the picture looked different — The Hunting Wives, a lesser-known title compared to the mega-franchises it beat out, took the number one position in trending TV searches. The global top ten was dominated by Netflix, which secured four of the ten spots, while streaming competitors like Apple TV+, HBO, Amazon, and Hulu each placed contenders that proved audiences are no longer loyal to any single platform. Beyond the top spots, the 2025 list revealed a viewing public drawn to a specific cocktail: prestige drama, returning fan favorites, and dark thrillers.
Shows like Severance and White Lotus crossed over onto both the U.S. and global lists, demonstrating genuine worldwide appeal rather than regional hype. Meanwhile, franchise entries like Squid Game 3 and Alien: Earth showed that sequels and spinoffs still generate massive curiosity — even when reviews are mixed. This article breaks down the full global and U.S. rankings, examines why certain shows outperformed expectations, explores what Netflix’s dominance actually means, and looks at what early 2026 trends suggest about where viewer attention is heading next.
Table of Contents
- What Were the Most Googled TV Shows Worldwide in 2025?
- Why Did The Hunting Wives Beat Major Franchises in U.S. Searches?
- How Netflix Dominated the Global Search Conversation
- Which Returning Shows Generated the Most Search Interest?
- What the Rankings Miss — Limitations of Google Search Data
- Breakout New Shows That Defined the 2025 Search Landscape
- Early 2026 Trends and What to Watch Next
- Conclusion
What Were the Most Googled TV Shows Worldwide in 2025?
Google’s Year in Search 2025 report ranks TV shows by search interest spikes relative to baseline — meaning these aren’t necessarily the most-watched shows, but the ones that generated the sharpest surges of curiosity. Globally, the top ten ran as follows: Monster: The Ed Gein Story led the pack, followed by squid Game 3, Adolescence, Severance, The Summer I Turned Pretty, White Lotus, Pluribus, American Primeval, Alien: Earth, and Landman at number ten. The list is notably genre-diverse. Monster and American Primeval lean into true crime and frontier violence, Adolescence tackles coming-of-age territory with a darker edge, and Severance operates in cerebral sci-fi.
There is no single genre formula that guarantees search dominance. What stands out is the platform spread. Netflix claimed four spots (Monster, Squid Game 3, Adolescence, American Primeval), but Apple TV+ landed Severance at number four, HBO/Max placed White Lotus at six, Amazon got The Summer I Turned Pretty at five, Hulu/FX contributed Alien: Earth, and Paramount+ closed the list with Landman. A few years ago, a list like this would have been unthinkable — the idea that a Paramount+ show about Texas oil would sit alongside a Korean survival thriller on a global search ranking reflects just how fragmented and democratized the streaming landscape has become. No single service owns the cultural conversation anymore, even if Netflix still takes the largest slice.
Why Did The Hunting Wives Beat Major Franchises in U.S. Searches?
The U.S. list tells a slightly different story from the global one. The Hunting Wives topped the American rankings, followed by The White Lotus, The Pitt, The Summer I Turned Pretty, Squid Game, Severance, MobLand, Adolescence, Andor, and IT: Welcome to Derry. The fact that The Hunting Wives — a show without the brand recognition of Squid Game or the prestige pedigree of Severance — outpaced them all is worth examining. Google Trends measures spikes in curiosity, not sustained viewership, so a show that seemingly comes out of nowhere can generate a sharper search surge than a well-marketed sequel that people already know about and have calendar alerts set for. This pattern has repeated before.
In prior years, shows like Beef and Baby Reindeer generated outsized search interest precisely because they lacked the built-in awareness of franchise titles. Audiences hear about a show through word of mouth or social media clips, and the first thing they do is Google it — what is this show, where can I watch it, is it any good. A show like Squid Game 3 generates enormous search volume in raw numbers, but much of its audience already knows exactly what it is and where to find it, so the relative spike is smaller. However, if you’re a content creator or marketer interpreting these rankings as a measure of raw popularity, you’d be making a mistake. Search interest and total viewership are different metrics, and The Hunting Wives topping the U.S. Google list does not mean it was watched more than Squid Game. It means it provoked more curiosity per capita relative to its baseline.
How Netflix Dominated the Global Search Conversation
Netflix’s four-slot hold on the global top ten — Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Squid Game 3, Adolescence, and American Primeval — is significant but requires context. Netflix releases more original content than any other single platform, so statistically it has more shots on goal. The company’s algorithm-driven recommendation engine and its strategy of front-loading marketing spend in the first week of a show’s release are designed to create exactly the kind of search spikes that Google Trends measures. When Netflix drops a show, the entire internet talks about it for roughly seventy-two hours, which is often enough to register a massive search peak even if the conversation fades quickly afterward. The specific titles that made the list also reveal Netflix’s strategic bets.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story extends Ryan Murphy’s Monster anthology franchise, which has proven that true crime with a prestige veneer is one of Netflix’s most reliable formulas. American Primeval represents the platform’s push into limited-series event television with high production values. Adolescence, a British series that examines youth violence and online culture, is the kind of internationally produced show that Netflix has increasingly relied on to capture non-U.S. audiences. And Squid Game 3, of course, is the conclusion of what became Netflix’s single biggest global franchise. Each title serves a different strategic purpose, which suggests Netflix’s dominance here isn’t accidental — it’s the result of a deliberately diversified content portfolio designed to capture search interest across multiple demographics and regions simultaneously.
Which Returning Shows Generated the Most Search Interest?
Several shows on both the global and U.S. lists were returning seasons rather than new properties, and the comparison between them is instructive. Severance, which appeared at number four globally and number six in the U.S., had one of the longest gaps between seasons in recent streaming history — its first season aired in early 2022, and the second didn’t arrive until 2025. That three-year wait built up enormous pent-up demand, and when the show finally returned, the search surge was immediate and sharp. By contrast, The Summer I Turned Pretty, which landed at number five globally and number four in the U.S., operates on a more conventional annual release cycle, and its search interest is driven more by its young adult fanbase’s consistent engagement than by scarcity.
White Lotus (Season 3) appeared on both lists as well, sitting at number six globally and number two in the U.S. — a strong showing for an anthology series where each season features an almost entirely new cast and setting. The tradeoff with anthology formats is that you lose the character continuity that keeps fans obsessively searching for plot details and theories, but you gain the curiosity factor of “where is it set this time, and who’s in it.” For White Lotus, that tradeoff has clearly worked. Squid Game occupied different positions on the two lists — number two globally but number five in the U.S. — which likely reflects the show’s outsized popularity in Asian and European markets compared to its (still substantial) American audience. If you’re trying to gauge which returning show had the broadest cross-market appeal, Severance and White Lotus are the clearest answers, since both appeared in the top six on both lists.
What the Rankings Miss — Limitations of Google Search Data
It’s worth being direct about what these rankings don’t tell you. Google Trends data measures relative search interest, not absolute viewership numbers, subscriber conversions, or critical quality. A show can top the Google search charts because of controversy, confusion, or even negative buzz — people Googling “is this show worth watching” or “why is everyone talking about this” count the same as people Googling “how to watch” with genuine intent. The rankings also don’t account for search behavior differences across platforms.
Younger audiences who discover shows primarily through TikTok or Instagram may never Google the title at all, which means shows with strong social media traction among Gen Z could be underrepresented in these lists. There’s also a geographic and linguistic bias to consider. Google’s search dominance varies by country — in markets where other search engines hold significant share, the data is less representative. And the “trending” methodology specifically measures spikes rather than sustained interest, which means a show that maintains steady, high viewership over months (like a long-running network procedural) will never appear on these lists because it doesn’t generate the sharp peaks that the algorithm flags. So while these rankings are a genuinely useful snapshot of cultural curiosity, treating them as a definitive measure of what people actually watched — or what was actually good — would be a mistake.
Breakout New Shows That Defined the 2025 Search Landscape
Among the titles that weren’t sequels or returning seasons, a few stand out for the sheer scale of their search debuts. The Pitt, which landed at number three on the U.S. list, was a breakout hospital drama on Max that seemed to tap into a genre appetite that had gone underserved since the peak years of shows like ER and Grey’s Anatomy. Its presence on the list suggests there’s still a substantial audience hungry for high-stakes medical drama when it’s done well — a genre that streamers had largely abandoned in favor of true crime and limited series.
Alien: Earth, at number nine globally, demonstrated that the Alien franchise still commands curiosity even as it moves to the small screen, though it’s worth noting it didn’t crack the U.S. top ten, hinting that its search interest was driven more by international audiences. Landman, the Paramount+ series at number ten globally, is perhaps the most surprising inclusion. A drama about the Texas oil industry created by Taylor Sheridan, it represents the continued bankability of Sheridan’s brand (Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown) even on a platform that has struggled for cultural relevance compared to Netflix and HBO. Its presence on the global list suggests Sheridan’s appeal is extending beyond the American heartland audience typically associated with his work.
Early 2026 Trends and What to Watch Next
While Google has not yet released a 2026 Year in Search report — it’s far too early in the year for that — some early indicators are already emerging. Bridgerton Season 4 premiered on Netflix on January 29, 2026, and is generating significant search interest, which is consistent with the franchise’s track record of dominating online conversation during its release windows. The Night Agent Season 3 is set to premiere on Netflix on February 19, 2026, and given that the series has been one of Netflix’s most-watched action thrillers, it’s likely to register a notable search spike as well.
If the 2025 data offers any predictive value, the shows most likely to dominate search in 2026 will be those that combine brand familiarity with a long enough gap since their last season to build anticipation — or, alternatively, genuine newcomers that catch audiences off guard and provoke the “what is this and should I be watching it” search behavior that propelled The Hunting Wives to the top of the U.S. list. The streaming wars may have settled into a more stable competitive landscape, but the battle for search attention — and the cultural relevance it signals — is far from decided.
Conclusion
The 2025 Google search data paints a picture of a television landscape where no single platform, genre, or release strategy guarantees dominance. Netflix held the most global slots, but Apple TV+, HBO, Amazon, Hulu, and Paramount+ all placed shows in the top ten, and in the U.S., an underdog title beat every major franchise to the top spot. The shows that generated the most curiosity ranged from true crime anthologies to cerebral sci-fi to young adult romance, suggesting that audiences are not consolidating around any one type of storytelling — they’re following quality and buzz wherever it surfaces.
For viewers trying to figure out what to watch, these lists are a reasonable starting point but not gospel. A show’s Google search ranking tells you it captured public curiosity, not that it will necessarily satisfy yours. The best approach is to cross-reference these rankings with critical reception and your own genre preferences. And if 2025 taught us anything, it’s that the show you haven’t heard of yet — the one that makes you open a new tab and type “what is The Hunting Wives about” — might end up being the defining series of the year.
