‘Bluey’ Dominates the First Half of 2025
It’s Bluey’s world and we’re all just living in it.
If you had any doubt about this statement, I’m about to convince you of the truth.
Photo: The New York Post
Also, Disney’s services claimed the top five titles on streaming so far this year.
The story today is that Disney has dominated the first half of 2025. Here’s what we know.
The World’s Most Popular Australian Blue Heller Pup
Photographer: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
Nielsen has published streaming data for the first six months of 2025, and the news simply couldn’t be better for Disney programming.
From January through June, Disney+ and Hulu streamed six of the eight most-watched programs, including the entire top five.
Wall Street Journal
As I’ve mentioned during the weekly Nielsen streaming ratings, a couple of programs are likely to prevent Bluey from winning the entire year.
One of them, Squid Game, released its third season on June 27, 2025.
Photo: Netflix
So, its current total as of June 30th, 15.07 billion, belies the fact that it’s done much better over the last two weeks.
I’d argue that there’s a bit of an asterisk here, though the gap is so large that it might not make a difference.
Photo: Ludo Studios
After the first six months of 2025, fans have consumed 25.06 billion minutes of Bluey.
It’s basically ahead of the competition by about 10 billion minutes.
Photo: Ludo Studios
While I suspect the current lead is less than half that amount, we won’t know for another month because of the way Nielsen staggers its streaming ratings reporting.
What we do know is that only two programs have managed 20 billion minutes watched thus far in 2025.
Photo: Disney
Those titles are Bluey and Grey’s Anatomy, which has managed 22.55 billion minutes.
I want to emphasize something here to help you understand Bluey’s dominance.
Image Credit: ABC
Grey’s Anatomy episodes last 45 minutes each.
Meanwhile, Bluey episodes are maybe seven minutes if we throw in the credits.
Photo: Disney+
So, I think it’s fair to argue that people are viewing six times as many Bluey minutes as anything on streaming.
Bluey fever is real and highly contagious.
What Else Are People Watching?
Hulu
Words cannot accurately express what a juggernaut Hulu has become.
You can find four of the five most-watched programs streaming on Hulu right now.
Photo: Disney+
I should mention that two of them are also available on competing streaming services, which speaks to the quirks of content licensing in the streaming era.
Grey’s Anatomy is one of those programs, as it also airs on Netflix.
Credit: ABC
The other is NCIS, whose situation is somehow even messier.
You can watch this procedural as long as you subscribe to one of Hulu, Netflix, or Paramount Plus.
Photo: Disney
People are obviously doing that, as NCIS earned 19.12 billion viewer minutes.
It’s a total good enough to beat Squid Game… but not Bluey.
Photo: Disney
In case I’m not beating you over the head with this point enough, nothing beats Bluey.
Hulu’s commitment to adult animation has also paid significant dividends, with Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers rounding out the top five.
IMDB
Those two Hulu programs gained 19.07 and 17.11 billion viewer minutes, respectively.
So, those are the top five shows on streaming right now, and yes, if you own the Disney Bundle, you can watch all of them.
Photo: Newsweek
This fact drives home the point that the Disney Bundle provides exceptional value.
Also, you should fully understand why Disney committed so heavily to its Hulu acquisition.
Photo: Disney+
The criticisms people were making about the Fox acquisition as recently as last year seem ludicrously ill-informed with the benefit of hindsight.
Disney has used these popular catalog titles to train its fans to consume content on streaming.
Disney’s Incredible Success
Photo:Ivan Marc / Shutterstock.com
None of the other legacy media companies have successfully leveraged their back catalogs the way that Disney does.
As proof, Paramount is the only other legacy company with two titles in the top ten.
Comcast
Warner Bros. Discovery only manages one, as does Comcast/NBCUniversal. Meanwhile, Disney claims seven.
That’s what marketplace dominance looks like.
Photo: Disney
Here’s a list of some of Disney’s other streaming hits thus far.
- The Rookie – 15.64 billion viewer minutes
- Law & Order: SVU – 14.52 billion viewer minutes
- American Dad! – 12.97 billion viewer minutes
- Criminal Minds – 12.59 billion viewer minutes
- Spidey and His Amazing Friends – 10.12 billion viewer minutes
- The Handmaid’s Tale – 8.17 billion viewer minutes
- Moana 2 – 7.23 billion viewer minutes
- Andor – 5.68 billion viewer minutes
- Moana – 3.85 billion viewer minutes
- Frozen – 3.06 billion viewer minutes
- Mufasa: The Lion King – 2.73 billion viewer minutes
- Encanto – 2.62 billion viewer minutes
- Lilo & Stitch – 2.62 billion viewer minutes
Photo: Disney
Folks, I’ve got some other things to discuss, but let’s not bury the lede here.
Nielsen listed the 60 most popular programs on streaming.
Photo: Hulu
You’ll find an almost incomprehensible 18 of those on Disney+/Hulu.
Twenty-eight of these titles are also on Netflix, but here’s where Disney claims a competitive advantage.
Deadline
Even in the most favorable evaluation, Netflix owns seven to ten of its programs. Disney owns at least 13.
Photo: The New York Post
This is vertical integration in action, or as Walt Disney called it, “the Disney Flywheel.”
Believe me when I say that Disney executives are taking a victory lap after the publication of these Nielsen charts.
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Feature Photo: Photo: Bluey.tvu
