This year was a big one for binge watching and on-demand viewing but of every single show streamed this year Lucifer proved to be the most popular.
The mystery series beat the likes of Stranger Things, Orange Is The New Black, Black Mirror and Mindhunter for the title, suggesting TV fans just can’t get enough of watching a demon help solve crimes.
Lucifer follows the story of, you guessed it, Lucifer (Tom Ellis), who arrives from hell to reside in Los Angeles. Some people might consider that a hell of its own, but I guess the demon just couldn’t resist the draw of Hollywood.
The lead character soon finds himself caught up with the local police but despite being a demon he actually joins forces with them and assists them with tricky cases.
The series originally aired on Fox but it found a new home on Netflix in May 2018 after it was axed. There are currently four seasons of the hit show available to watch and earlier this year it was announced the upcoming fifth season would be its last.
Whether it was the show’s arrival on Netflix that prompted viewers to hit that play button or a dedicated fanbase that couldn’t help but binge the series on repeat, a report from TV Time, cited by Forbes, found Lucifer was the most streamed show of the year.
The series had a lot of competition, especially with the arrival and increased popularity of rival streaming services like Disney+ and Apple TV+, but the wealth of online content obviously just wasn’t worthy enough to tempt people away from the devil.
Joe Henderson, executive producer on the show, expressed his excitement at the ranking on Twitter, writing:
So, uh, this is a pretty cool list! Look who’s #1
Lucifer himself also commented on the achievement, as Ellis wrote:
Well what are the chances?
Despite the battle between streaming services Netflix actually emerged relatively unscathed as 19 of this year’s top 20 most popular shows belonged to the streaming giant.
Lucifer was followed by Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, Money Heist, Orange Is The New Black, The Handmaid’s Tale, Sex Education, Elite, You and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which rounded out the top 10. Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale was the only non-Netflix series to make the cut.
The hype around Lucifer is likely to continue as fans eagerly await the new season, which is thought to be arriving next year. Fans better stream while they can.
Things may change next year as Disney+, Prime Video, Hulu and Apple TV+ continue to release new content but the figures suggest Netflix doesn’t have anything to worry about for the time being.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.