“In total, Americans streamed more than 19.4 million years of content last year, up 27% from about 15 million years in 2021,” the Nielsen Institute revealed.

And it is Netflix’s “Stranger Things” that takes the gold medal with 52 billion minutes watched in the US – the biggest audience since the pandemic, which saw a passion for “The Office” with 57.1 billion minutes watched in 2020.

The success of the Duffer brothers’ series is perhaps more impressive than that of NBC’s cult series given the number of episodes: just 34 for the supernatural series, compared with 192 for the sitcom.

“Stranger Things” was indeed major hit for Netflix with its fourth season, which became the platform’s most-watched English-language series four weeks after its release, with 1.35 billion hours watched.

Meanwhile, the series “Wednesday”, based on the story of the Addams Family, also made a big splash last year, thanks in part to Jenna Ortega’s performance.

With 18.6 billion cumulative minutes, the new show has become the third-most watched original series, taking into account all platforms (Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, Hulu, HBO Max, and Peacock).

Emerging amidst the multitude of original creations from Netflix, Prime Video has bona fide hits in “The Boys”, its series about terrifying superheroes (11th place with 10.6 billion minutes viewed), and the first season of its blockbuster “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (15th place with 9.4 billion minutes).

Here are the top 15 streaming originals of 2022:

1. “Stranger Things” – Netflix – 34 episodes – 52.0 billion minutes viewed
2. “Ozark” – Netflix – 44 episodes – 31.3 billion minutes
3. “Wednesday” – Netflix – 8 episodes – 18.6 billion minutes
4. “Cobra Kai” – Netflix – 50 episodes – 16.7 billion minutes
5. “Bridgerton” – Netflix – 16 episodes – 14.0 billion minutes
6. “Virgin River” – Netflix – 42 episodes – 13.6 billion minutes
7. “Dahmer” – Netflix – 10 episodes – 13.4 billion minutes
8. “Love is Blind” – Netflix – 40 episodes – 13.1 billion minutes
9. “Inventing Anna” – Netflix – 9 episodes – 12.9 billion minutes
10. “The Crown” – Netflix – 50 episodes – 12.7 billion minutes
11. “The Boys” – Prime Video – 24 episodes – 10.6 billion minutes
12. “Great British Baking Show – Netflix – 85 episodes – 10.6 billion minutes
13. “The Umbrella Academy” – Netflix – 30 episodes – 10.5 billion minutes
14. “The Last Kingdom” – Netflix – 46 episodes – 10.4 billion minutes
15. “The Rings of Power” – Prime Video – 8 episodes – 9.4 billion minutes