Netflix End-of-Year Ranker: ‘Cocomelon,’ ‘The Office,’ ‘The Queens Gambit’ Top 2020 List

Parents with preschool-aged kids and younger probably won’t be shocked by the most-watched show on Netflix in 2020. Everyone else, get ready to scratch your heads.

The team at streaming tracker Reelgood kept tabs on all the shows that made it on Netflix’s top 10 rankers this year (since the streamer started publicizing it in late February) and “Cocomelon,” the preschool franchise that began as a YouTube channel featuring nursery rhymes and other kids’ songs, has been a smash.

Netflix began airing episodes of “Cocomelon” earlier this year. It has spent 104 days on Netflix’s top 10 ranker, more than any other program except “The Office.”

When Reelgood looks at how consistently high each program ranked on Netflix, assigning the most points to No. 1, “Cocomelon” winds up as the most popular show since February (when the top 10 most-watched lists began) on the streamer.

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British company Moonbug Entertainment acquired “Cocomelon,” which comes from Irvine, Calif.-based Treasure Studio, in July.

After looking at every TV program title’s total number of appearances on Netflix’s daily lists, and their place on the list each time, Reelgood found that Netflix originals made up more than half of the final top 10, but that the two highest-ranking titles — “Cocomelon” and “The Office”— were licensed content. (“The Office” exits Netflix at the end of the year, as it moves exclusively to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streamer.)

Per Reelgood, overall there were over 190 different TV shows that made it to Netflix’s daily top 10 between Feb 27 and Dec 9, 2020, led by “The Office,” with 178 appearances.

When ranker position is factored in, the other shows making it to the top five come from Netflix: “The Queen’s Gambit,” “Tiger King” and MRC’s “Ozark.”

The success of “The Queen’s Gambit” and “Tiger King” this year backs up Netflix’s assertions that they are among the streamer’s most popular series ever. Netflix recently claimed that “The Queen’s Gambit” set the record as the most-watched scripted limited series to date on Netflix — with 62 million member accounts tuning in to the show in the first 28 days, according to the company. Earlier this year, Netflix said “Tiger King” was sampled by 64 million member accounts in the first month of its release.

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