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Seth MacFarlane is Nielsen‘s inaugural “Streaming Icon of the Year.”
The TV ratings measurement company released the results of the 2025 ARTEY Awards, its annual recognition of the most-watched streaming titles of the year, on Wednesday. This included MacFarlane’s icon award, bestowed upon him as a result of his ” time-tested ability to engage audiences,” Nielsen said.
The Streaming Icon of the Year award is meant to honor “a creator, actor, producer or writer whose vast body of work drives significant, sustained viewership across platforms.”
Per Nielsen, last year alone, MacFarlaneʼs catalog of TV series and films generated over 60B viewing minutes across streaming platforms. That’s equivalent to about 116,000 years of time spent streaming. Unsurprisingly, Family Guy is a huge driver as the series is the second most-watched in all of adult animation and the No. 7 streaming program overall in 2025. Nielsen says Family Guy charted on the Top 10 for 37 weeks last year.
MacFarlane also maintained a presence on the list last year thanks to the 3B minutes of streaming generated by series including American Dad!, The Orville, Ted (series), The Cleveland Show, The End is Nye, Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey and Cosmos: Possible Worlds. His films also made a splash, including The Naked Gun, Ted, Ted 2, A Million Ways to Die in the West and Books of Blood.
Overall, Nielsen says audiences spent 16.7T minutes streaming, which is a 19% increase compared to 2024’s 14T. The most-watched series was once again Bluey, tallying 45.2B minutes streaming on Disney+ throughout 2025. Grey’s Anatomy was another heavy hitter, taking runner up for most-streamed overall for the second year in a row with 40.9B minutes streamed.
Surely, the top streaming-only titles will not be shockers to anyone, either. Stranger Things was the big winner, generating 40B minutes streamed, while Squid Game came in second with 22.4B.
English (US) ·