Winners reflect a new profitability era where demand signals help quantify platform value, economic impact, and cultural reach.
LOS ANGELES (January 15, 2026) - Parrot Analytics today announced the winners of the 8th Annual Global Demand Awards, recognizing the world’s most in-demand TV series and movies of 2025. In a year defined by the shift from "growth-at-all-costs" to profitability, Netflix’s Stranger Things and the pan-India action epic Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2 secured the top honors as the World’s Choice winners.
As the industry’s only data-driven global accolades, the Global Demand Awards are not voted on by committees. Instead, winners are determined by Parrot Analytics’ global audience demand measurement system, which tracks the daily demand for over 60,000 series and movies across 100+ markets. This methodology captures the full spectrum of audience behavior - viewership, social interaction, and consumer research actions - to identify the titles that truly won the battle in the global attention economy in 2025.
The 2025 winners reflect an entertainment industry that is no longer competing for “more hours watched” but for high-value engagement - where a title’s ability to trigger consumer behavior (watching, sharing, searching, rewatching) across markets and platforms is what determines commercial impact.
“This year’s winners show what the market is rewarding right now: content that creates synchronized global moments, and stories that win globally by staying true to their local roots,” said Samuel Stadler, VP Marketing at Parrot Analytics. “The last season of Stranger Things didn’t just perform - it tested the limits of Netflix’s infrastructure, driving massive, concentrated engagement. Elsewhere in the world, the second installment of Pushpa demonstrates how South Asian cinema has become a global force, activating diaspora audiences and competing head-to-head with Hollywood franchises. In a profitability-driven era where every greenlight is a capital allocation decision, demand is the clearest, most scalable signal of what audiences value - and where sustainable value is being created.”
Mega-tentpoles and global "events" define TV’s top winner
Netflix’s Stranger Things earned World’s Choice - Most In-Demand TV Show, along with Drama and Horror honors, proving the unrivaled power of the mega-tentpole to generate “event” demand at global scale. The final season delivered platform-crashing intensity, causing a brief Netflix outage despite a 30% bandwidth increase. With 59.6 million views in five days - a 171% jump over Season 4 - the premiere drove such synchronized demand that it propelled every previous season back into the Netflix Top 10.
South Asian cinema’s global surge powers the year’s top film winner
Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2 dominated the film landscape in our awards, sweeping five categories including World’s Choice - Most In-Demand Movie and Most In-Demand Action Movie. Grossing over $200 million worldwide and outperforming its predecessor by more than 5x in North America, the film utilized a strict 56-day theatrical window to maximize engagement. The result reflects a broader market shift: pan-India films are increasingly “pan-global,” using theatrical momentum and diaspora activation to create enduring demand well beyond their home market.
Authenticity drives global success
In TV regional categories, the winners illustrate how global success is increasingly driven by authentic local identity, not one-size-fits-all content. Netflix’s The Eternaut (El Eternauta) won Most In-Demand Latin American Original Series of 2025, a landmark example of a highly local story achieving global scale while delivering measurable real-world economic impact, injecting an estimated 41 billion Argentine pesos (approx. $34 million USD) into the local economy.
Netflix’s Squid Game won Most In-Demand Asian Original Series, exemplifying elite travelability by hitting #1 in 92 countries. Squid Game Season 3 garnered 60.1 million views in just three days, setting a new record for the fastest three-day start for any series on Netflix and surpassing the debut pace of Season 2, which had previously broken Wednesday's premiere-week record by amassing 68 million views in its first four days.The franchise reinforces the long-term global scalability of Korean storytelling and the continuing strength of the “K-content” flywheel.
Audience tribes and format innovation drive key wins
Several winners demonstrate how distinct audience “tribes” now drive outsized outcomes:
Most In-Demand Documentary Series: Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive won, validating the "sports flywheel" effect where live racing narratives and episodic streaming work in tandem to drive mutual growth; and of course this documentary series benefited from the release of F1 - The Movie, starring Brad Pitt.
Most In-Demand Comedy Series: NBC’s Saturday Night Live secured the win, demonstrating the power of "short-form amplification" as viral clips and social conversation have become the show's primary driver of its cultural relevance.
Most In-Demand Documentary Movie: No Other Land won by harnessing urgent cultural relevance. Despite initial distribution hurdles, the film’s cultural urgency and Oscar success forced a path to audiences, proving that intense demand can bypass traditional gatekeepers.
Enduring franchises and catalog classics sustain long-term demand
NBC’s The Voice (US) won Most In-Demand Reality Series again, marking a third consecutive win (2023-2025) and reaffirming the durability of long-running unscripted formats. SpongeBob SquarePants matched this feat, securing Most In-Demand Children’s Series for the third year running to demonstrate the franchise's unstoppable, multi-generational appeal. James Cameron’s Titanic won Most In-Demand Classic Film of 2025 for a third year in a row - further evidence that evergreen library titles can re-activate at scale and sustain demand decades after release.
Full list of winners for the 8th Annual Global Demand Awards
TV Categories
World’s Choice - Most In-Demand TV Show in the World 2025: Stranger Things
Most In-Demand Series Debut of 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry
Most In-Demand Anime Series of 2025: My Hero Academia
Most In-Demand Children’s Series of 2025: SpongeBob SquarePants
Most In-Demand Comedy Series of 2025: Saturday Night Live
Most In-Demand Documentary Series of 2025: Formula 1: Drive to Survive
Most In-Demand Drama Series of 2025: Stranger Things
Most In-Demand Horror Series of 2025: Stranger Things
Most In-Demand Reality Series of 2025: The Voice (US)
Most In-Demand Superhero Series of 2025: Invincible
Most In-Demand Asian Original Series of 2025: Squid Game
Most In-Demand European Original Series of 2025: Black Mirror
Most In-Demand Latin American Original Series of 2025: The Eternaut (El Eternauta)
Movie Categories
World’s Choice - Most In-Demand Movie in the World 2025: Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2
Most In-Demand Movie Premiere of 2025 (45-day window): Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2
Most In-Demand Action Movie of 2025: Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2
Most In-Demand Animated Movie of 2025: Mufasa: The Lion King
Most In-Demand Comedy Movie of 2025: Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3
Most In-Demand Documentary Movie of 2025: No Other Land
Most In-Demand Drama Movie of 2025: Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2
Most In-Demand Horror Movie of 2025: Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3
Most In-Demand Asian Export of 2025: Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2
Most In-Demand European Export of 2025: Gladiator II
Most In-Demand Latin American Export of 2025: Diablo
Most In-Demand Classic Film of 2025: Titanic
Methodology
Please consider the following notes on our methodology:
TV Series
The finalists for each TV category are determined based on global audience demand data for the period January 1, 2025 - December 31, 2025.
TV series are only included if the show was released in the 2025 calendar year, or if any new episodes were released in the 2025 calendar year.
Children's content and anime have been excluded from the following categories: Most In-Demand Asian Original Series, Most In-Demand European Original Series and Most In-Demand Latin American Original Series as they already have their own dedicated categories.
Movies
The analysis timeframe that has been applied is November 1, 2024 - October 31, 2025 to ensure that U.S. holiday season movie releases are captured. Movies are only included if the film was released in that period.
For the Most In-Demand Classic Film category we only include films that premiered in 2005 or before.
About The Global Demand Awards:
The Global Demand Awards is the world’s first unbiased, data-driven entertainment awards event. The winning TV series, movies and talent are determined using empirical audience demand around the world; there are no judges and no voting committees involved. Instead, winners are selected using Parrot Analytics’ global audience demand measurement system, which measures how much a TV series, movie or talent resonates with people in 200+ markets around the world, across all platforms. For more information, please visit www.globaldemandawards.com.
About Parrot Analytics:
Parrot Analytics is the leader in global media & entertainment analytics – powering leading studios, streaming services, networks, production companies, talent agencies, entertainment law firms, game studios, sports leagues, film funds and government agencies to make smarter decisions in today’s attention economy. The company values content, talent, IP and sports by measuring over 2 billion audiences globally. By providing the industry’s leading AI-powered analytics solutions, Parrot Analytics solves the industry’s most existential questions: from measuring content revenue on streaming services and forecasting box office success, to valuing sports, IP and talent rights. For more information about Parrot Analytics, see: www.parrotanalytics.com.
