Netflix Just Dominated Nielsen’s Most-Streamed Movies List, and One Title Blew Past Everything Else

The streaming wars have produced plenty of headlines over the years, but few metrics carry as much weight as Nielsen’s official viewership rankings, the gold standard for measuring what Americans are actually watching on their televisions. Every six months, the data offers a rare, unbiased snapshot of which platforms and titles are genuinely capturing audience attention.

That snapshot has just arrived for the first half of 2026, and the results paint a striking picture of one platform’s continued grip on American living rooms. While competitors have made incremental gains here and there, the numbers make clear which streamer is still setting the pace when it comes to movies.

Netflix’s crime thriller ‘The Rip,’ starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, topped Nielsen’s list of the most-streamed movies for the first half of 2026, according to the company’s “Streaming Landscape 2026” report. The film racked up an astonishing 4.432 billion viewing minutes since its January premiere, putting it well ahead of every other title on the chart.

Netflix’s dominance extended far beyond just the top spot. The streamer claimed a striking eight of the twenty highest-ranking movie slots, with ‘War Machine’ following in second place at 3.531 billion minutes, ‘The Crash’ landing at fifth with 2.689 billion minutes, and additional Netflix titles including ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures,’ ‘Apex,’ ‘Anaconda’ (2025), ‘People We Meet on Vacation,’ and ‘Joe’s College Road Trip’ rounding out the streamer’s presence throughout the chart.

Nielsen’s rankings are based on total viewing minutes among people age two and older, tracked through the company’s Streaming Content Ratings service across a panel of more than 40,000 households. The data covers the period from late December through late June, capturing a genuinely comprehensive picture of first-half viewing habits nationwide.

1. The Rip (Netflix) – 4.432B minutes
2. War Machine (Netflix) – 3.531B minutes
3. Jurassic World Rebirth (Peacock / Netflix) – 3.395B minutes
4. The Wrecking Crew (Prime Video) – 2.946B minutes
5. The Crash (Netflix) – 2.689B minutes
6. Remarkably Bright Creatures (Netflix) – 2.623B minutes
7. Apex (Netflix) – 2.535B minutes
8. Sinners (HBO Max) – 2.509B minutes
9. Anaconda (2025) (Netflix) – 2.331B minutes
10. The Running Man (2025) (Paramount+) – 2.307B minutes
11. One Battle After Another (HBO Max) – 2.304B minutes
12. People We Meet on Vacation (Netflix) – 2.298B minutes
13. Joe’s College Road Trip (Netflix) – 2.191B minutes
14. Maternal Instinct (Netflix) – 1.995B minutes
15. How To Train Your Dragon (2025) (Peacock / Netflix) – 1.944B minutes
16. Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War (Prime Video) – 1.939B minutes
17. Harry Potter: Sorcerer’s Stone (Peacock / HBO Max) – 1.923B minutes
18. Crime 101 (Prime Video) – 1.807B minutes
19. Thrash (MV 2026) (Netflix) – 1.766B minutes
20. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix) – 1.708B minutes

‘The Rip”s dominance on the Nielsen chart lines up closely with figures Netflix itself has shared about the film’s performance. According to Netflix’s own “What We Watched” report, the film generated a record-breaking opening weekend viewership of 41.6 million views, the highest opening total for any release this year, and went on to hold the number one spot on Netflix’s global charts for three separate weeks, more than any other title managed during the same period.

While Netflix titles dominated the general movie rankings, competing platforms still carved out meaningful wins in other categories. Nielsen noted that Disney+’s ‘Zootopia 2′ led the kids’ movie category with 6.54 billion minutes, while Netflix’s own ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ ranked second in that same category with 5.59 billion minutes.

The broader Nielsen report also highlighted a notable shift toward original streaming content across the board, with three original series cracking the overall top 10 rankings this half, up from just one during the same period last year. That trend suggests streaming platforms are increasingly finding success with exclusive programming rather than relying solely on acquired or licensed content to drive viewership.

With Netflix continuing to dominate both Nielsen’s independent tracking and its own internal reporting, the streamer’s grip on American audiences shows little sign of loosening heading into the back half of the year.

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