‘Happy Gilmore 2’ Was the Most-Streamed Non-Kids Movie of the Year

I don’t think we need to tell you that “KPop Demon Hunters” was the biggest movie obsession of 2025 by a wide margin. Netflix already previously confirmed it was its most-watched film ever, and Nielsen today confirmed it with the TV and streaming ratings analyst firm’s annual Artey Awards, racking up 20.6 billion minutes of streaming time on Netflix.

But that’s quite literally kids stuff. If you don’t have a 2-11 year-old in your household, you may be surprised at the title you were most likely to have watched: Adam Sandler’s “Happy Gilmore 2.”

Nielsen reports that “Happy Gilmore 2” on Netflix was viewed for 7.1 billion minutes in the U.S., narrowly edging out 2024’s “Wicked” (6.8 billion minutes) across both Peacock and Amazon Prime Video. Sure everyone watched Galinda and Elphaba before the Oscars and then again before “Wicked: For Good” came out, but more people were invested in watching the Sandman pick up his driver and put on his Boston Bruins hockey sweater again after a near-30-year hiatus.

Nielsen reports that “Happy Gilmore 2” upon its release in July 2025 set a new weekly viewing record for a streaming movie, and from a viewership perspective, it was Sandler’s most successful collaboration with Netflix. Nielsen even says that more people likely watched the PGA Tour this year as well after having watched “Happy Gilmore 2.” The film was loaded with golf cameos and also starred Travis Kelce and Bad Bunny for some reason, but clearly that stunt casting paid off.

While “KPop Demon Hunters” tops Netflix’s Top 10 chart, that chart looks at movies globally, so “Happy Gilmore 2” didn’t quite make the cut there, despite these massive numbers in the U.S. Among all movies, kids movies and general audience movies combined, “Happy Gilmore 2” would’ve been fourth in 2025, behind “KPop Demon Hunters,” “Moana 2” (9.4 billion minutes), and “Despicable Me 4” (8.7 billion minutes).

Speaking to just how strange streaming is and what people actually watch casually at home, the rest of the general audience Top 10 is a mix of old comfort family favorites and some movies you probably forgot existed. Here’s the full top 10 for General Audiences, in which the kids audience (2-11) is under 30 percent.

Quite the list! The return of Cameron Diaz to movies with “Back in Action” was not what we expected. “The Accountant 2” proved to be a good one for Amazon and Ben Affleck to revive nine years removed from the original. “The Electric State” could arguably and quietly be called one of the biggest bombs of 2025, as the film from the Russo Brothers and starring Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown was Netflix’s most expensive movie ever with a budget reportedly over $300 million, one meant to launch an entire franchise for Netflix, and it disappeared as quickly as it came.

And “Kraven the Hunter” was a Sony movie before it had its Pay-1 window on Netflix (something they’ll be doing a lot more of), and that movie was a quantifiable flop, pulling in $62 million worldwide against a budget in the range of $110-130 million.

Do any of these numbers suggest these movies were actually a success or that the economics of streaming are harder to parse than the traditional box office? No, and yes to the latter. But it does give a sense of what defines a true streaming movie in 2026.

On the TV end of things, the Australian animated toddler series “Bluey” repeated as the most-streamed program in the U.S. by a mile. Your kids watched it for 45.2 billion minutes in 2025, and to again emphasize how staggering of a number that is, the second-most-streamed series is “Grey’s Anatomy” with 40.9 billion minutes viewed. “Grey’s Anatomy” encompasses 455 hour-long episodes. “Bluey” has 154 episodes that are each just 7 minutes long. Let that sink in.

“Stranger Things” was also the most-viewed original series this year, followed by “Squid Game,” “Wednesday,” “Landman,” and “Reacher.” For “Stranger Things,” audiences watched for 39.9 billion viewing minutes, but Nielsen’s range only includes 41 episodes and cuts off on December 28, so not even the feature-length Season 5 series finale that aired on New Year’s Eve.