Netflix Releases List of Most Popular Shows and Movies in 2022

As part of its Tuesday drop of new Netflix top 10 figures, the streamer has released four top 10 lists looking back at their biggest hits of 2022. Let’s run through all four lists and see what the most popular Netflix movies and series of 2022 were.

In addition to these top 10 lists, Netflix also released a few other stats, including the fact that “Netflix members watched an average of six different genres a month” and that the service dominated the Nielsen charts saying they “had the #1 original series 46 out of 48 weeks so far this year and almost half of the #1 weekly movie spots on streaming.”

Below, we’ll look at the most popular TV and movies per Netflix plus using hourly data sourced from Netflix’s top 10 site which we use in our easy-to-use tool.

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Most Popular English Language Movies on Netflix in 2022

The Russo Brother’s big-budget action movie seemingly paid off with a theatrical release and a subsequent streaming release that was the biggest of the year.

1. The Gray Man
   • 6 weeks in global top 10 – 265,980,000 hours between July 17th and September 4th
   • Now listed as the fourth-biggest movie of all time – 253,870,000 hours in 28 days
2. The Adam Project
   • 8 weeks in global top 10s – 260,520,000 hours between March 6th and May 1st
   • Now listed as the fifth-biggest movie of all time – 233,160,000 in 28 days.
3. Purple Hearts
   • 6 weeks in global top 10s – 240,480,000 hours between July 24th and September 4th
   • Now listed as the seventh-biggest movie of all time – 228,690,000 in 28 days.
4. Hustle
   • 6 weeks in global top 10s – 198,310,000 hours between June 5th and July 17th
5. The Tinder Swindler
   • 5 weeks in global top 10s – 172,130,000 hours between January 30th and March 6th
6. The Sea Beast
   • 7 weeks in global top 10s – 190,150,000 hours between July 3rd and August 21st
7. Enola Holmes 2 
   • 4 weeks in global top 10s – 158,030,000 hours between October 30th and November 27th
8. Senior Year
   • 6 weeks in global top 10s – 167,600,000 hours between May 8th and June 19th
9. The Man From Toronto
   • 6 weeks in global top 10s – 170,820,000 hours between June 19th and July 31st
10. Day Shift 
    • 4 weeks in global top 10s – 149,810,000 hours between August 7th and September 4th

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Most Popular Non-English Netflix Movies of 2022

The Norweigen movie Troll unseated Blood Red Sky to become Netflix’s all-time most-watched non-English movie in the first 28 days.

1. Troll
   • 4 weeks in global top 10s* – 152,350,00 hours between November 27th to December 25th
   • Now listed as the biggest movie of all time – 152,350,000 hours in 28 days
2. All Quiet on the Western Front
   • 5 weeks in global top 10s – 103,420,000 hours between October 23rd to November 27th
   • Now listed as the fourth biggest movie of all time – 101,360,000 hours in 28 days
3. Black Crab
   • 6 weeks in global top 10s – 97,230,000 hours between March 13th and April 24th
4. Through My Window
   • 13 weeks in global top 10s – 114,050,000 hours between January 30th and June 26th
5. The Takedown
   • 6 weeks in global top 10s – 82,270,000 hours between May 1st and June 12th
6. Loving Adults 
   • 7 weeks in global top 10s – 72,720,000 hours between August 21st and October 23rd
7. Carter
   • 4 weeks in global top 10s – 64,040,000 hours between July 31st and August 28th
8. My Name is Vendetta 
   • 4 weeks in global top 10s* – 67,290,000 hours between November 27th and December 25th
9. Restless 
   • 5 weeks in global top 10s – 60,420,000 hours between February 20th and March 27th
10. Furioza
    • 4 weeks in global top 10s – 50,530,000 hours between April 3rd and May 1st

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Most Popular English Netflix Series of 2022

In terms of a pure hours, Stranger Things season 4 has taken the top spot on Netflix’s all-time list (although Wednesday wins using CVE figures – more on this later) and that’s no surprise given that it was a monster hit over the summer released over the course of two parts and with bumper runtimes.

1. Stranger Things (Season 4) 
   • Season 4 spent 19 weeks in top 10s clocking up 1.87 billion hours between May 22nd and October 9th.
   • Now sits at the global number 1 of all time with 1.35 billion hours in 28 days.
2. Wednesday (Season 1)
   • 5 weeks in global top 10s* – 1,314,690,000 hours between November 20th and December 25th
   • Now sits as the global number 2 of all time with 1.237 billion hours in 28 days.
3. DAHMER
   • 7 weeks in global top 10s – 962,470,000 hours between September 18th and November 6th
   • Now sits as global number 3 of all time with 856,220,000 hours in 28 days.
4. Bridgerton (Season 2)
   • 11 weeks in global top 10s – 775,240,000 hours between March 20th and June 5th
   • Now sits as global number 4 of all time with 656,260,000
     hours in 28 days.
5. Inventing Anna
   • 10 weeks in global top 10s – 654,560,000 hours between February 6th and April 17th
   • Now sits as global number 9 of all time with 511,920,000
     hours in 28 days.
6. Ozark (Season 4) 
   • Season 4: Part 2 spent 8 weeks in global top 10s with 282,710,000 hours between January 16th and March 6th
7. The Watcher
   • 5 weeks in global top 10s – 395,030,000 hours between October 9th and November 13th
8. The Sandman 
   • 7 weeks in global top 10s – 393,140,000 hours between July 31st and September 18th
9. The Umbrella Academy (Season 3) 
   • 5 weeks in global top 10s – 301,850,000 hours between June 19th and July 24th
10. Virgin River (Season 4) 
    • 6 weeks in global top 10s – 304,790,000 hours between July 17th and August 28th

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Most Popular Non-English Netflix Series of 2022

All of Us Are Dead took home the top spot on the non-English series list, dominated by debut seasons of shows with only one exception, Elite.

Netflix also boasted its dominance in the K Drama space saying, “60% of our members watched a Korean title and Netflix had 6 of the Top 10 most searched K-Dramas in Korea.”

1. All of Us Are Dead (Season 1) 
   • 11 weeks in global top 10s – 659,510,000 hours between January 23rd and April 10th
   • Now sits at number 4 of all time most popular list with 560,780,000 hours in first 28 days
2. Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Season 1)
   • 21 weeks in global top 10s – 662,090,000 hours between July 3rd and December 4th
   • Now sits at number 6 of all time most popular list with 402,470,000 hours in first 28 days.
3. The Marked Heart (Season 1)
   • 7 weeks in global top 10s – 272,750,000 hours watched between April 17th to June 5th
4. Till Money Do Us Part (Season 1)
   • 10 weeks in global top 10s* – 321,110,000 hours watched between October 16th and December 25th
5. Elite (Season 5)
   • 5 weeks in global top 10s – 172,640,000 hours watched April 3rd to May 8th
6. High Heat (Season 1)
   • 6 weeks in global top 10s – 178,860,000 hours watched between August 14th and September 25th
7. The Empress (Season 1) 
   • 5 weeks in global top 10s – 159,800,000 hours watched between September 25th to October 30th
8. Business Proposal (Season 1)
   • 13 weeks in global top 10s – 279,110,000 hours watched between March 6th and June 5th
9. Wrong Side of the Tracks (Season 1)
   • 5 weeks in global top 10s – 148,060,000 hours watched between May 15th and June 19th
10. Welcome to Eden (Season 1)
    • 5 weeks in global top 10s – 140,340,000 hours watched between May 1st and June 5th

Any hours marked with an asterisk mean that they’re expected to be in further top 10 lists.

For more discussion and the image versions of these lists, check out our Tweet embedded below:

Netflix has released the list of most popular TV and movies of 2022! pic.twitter.com/eVFSawFQzM

— What's on Netflix (@whatonnetflix) December 27, 2022

What was your favorite movie or series in 2022? Let us know in the comments.