Google put out its Best of 2025 list for Google TV. Most watched among films new to streaming that year were Superman, Sinners and The Pickup, which Google describes as a heist comedy. On the show side it was Reacher, The Last of Us and Love Island USA. The collection lives under the For You tab, in the US and a handful of other countries.
Worth being clear about what a list like this measures. It isn't what people watched in 2025. It's what people watched through Google TV, restricted to titles that were new to streaming that year, surfaced by the same home screen that decides what you get shown in the first place. A recommendation engine publishing its own top titles is grading its own homework. Anything you found by opening an app directly probably never entered the count at all.
No numbers either. No hours, no completion rates, nothing to compare one entry against another. Netflix at least publishes hours viewed twice a year and you can argue about the methodology. Here you get an ordered list and that's the end of it.
That said, the shape of it is believable. Two big theatrical titles landing on streaming, one prestige adaptation, one reality show people watch on repeat. Nothing there surprises me except how completely the list is dominated by things that were already famous before they arrived.
Does anyone treat these platform year-end lists as data, or are they just another promo shelf with a chart printed on it?
Worth being clear about what a list like this measures. It isn't what people watched in 2025. It's what people watched through Google TV, restricted to titles that were new to streaming that year, surfaced by the same home screen that decides what you get shown in the first place. A recommendation engine publishing its own top titles is grading its own homework. Anything you found by opening an app directly probably never entered the count at all.
No numbers either. No hours, no completion rates, nothing to compare one entry against another. Netflix at least publishes hours viewed twice a year and you can argue about the methodology. Here you get an ordered list and that's the end of it.
That said, the shape of it is believable. Two big theatrical titles landing on streaming, one prestige adaptation, one reality show people watch on repeat. Nothing there surprises me except how completely the list is dominated by things that were already famous before they arrived.
Does anyone treat these platform year-end lists as data, or are they just another promo shelf with a chart printed on it?
