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TV you can’t skip: Squid Game, American Primeval, and the rest of the week’s streaming winners

Published Jan 18th, 2025 12:05PM EST
Squid Game on Netflix
Image: Netflix

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Everyone’s favorite Netflix Korean TV show about financially struggling participants in a series of life-or-death games continues its streaming dominance for another week.

As we’ve noted previously, when Season 2 of Squid Game finally hit Netflix last month it actually broke a record, racking up 68 million views. That’s the biggest viewership a Netflix original has ever received in its debut week. Furthermore, global fan interest in the life-or-death games is still going strong. The streaming search engine Reelgood is out with its latest data about which TV shows are dominating the small screen right now, and it should come as no surprise that Squid Game is once again #1 with a bullet.

You can find that latest top 10 chart from Reelgood below, which covers the seven-day period that ended on Jan. 15 and is based on Reelgood monitoring 20 million viewing decisions each month across every major streaming platform in the US, from Apple TV+ to Max, Peacock, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Prime Video, and Paramount+. Let’s dive into this week’s Top 10 list.

Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun in Squid Game
Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun in “Squid Game.” Image source: No Ju-han/Netflix

1. Squid Game (Netflix). With 26.3 million views over the past week, Netflix’s blockbuster Korean drama remains the most-watched series on the streaming giant worldwide. And that’s to be expected, given that the show is Netflix’s biggest of all time, meaning the recently released second season was always going to be another home run in terms of viewership.

2. American Primeval (Netflix). This new Netflix hit is pretty much the anti-Yellowstone. Where Yellowstone was at its heart a soapy melodrama, this gritty and action-packed Western starring Taylor Kitsch is a bloody and a violent exploration of early America’s untamed frontier. The show is all about themes of survival and the dark forces that gave rise to a new nation.

3. Landman (Paramount+). In the newest TV drama from hitmaker Taylor Sheridan, which is based on the acclaimed podcast Boomtown, Billy Bob Thornton plays a fixer in the oil and gas industry, and the show itself is centered around the West Texas oil boom.

4. Silo (Apple TV+). One of several top-tier sci-fi shows on Apple’s streaming service, Silo is based on the series of acclaimed novels from Hugh Howey that tell a riveting story about the last survivors of humanity, living out their days in an underground silo after an apocalyptic event aboveground.

5. The Pitt (Max). ER doctors and nurses are confronted with medical crises, personal dramas, and workplace politics in this drama from the creative team behind NBC’s ER, each episode of which unfolds in real time — with the 15-episode season adding up to a single 15-hour ER shift. Here’s our preview of the season.

6. Severance (Apple TV+). It’s been quite an arduous wait for the return of one of Apple’s best shows (almost three years!), but the sophomore season of the dystopian workplace drama Severance, from director Ben Stiller, is finally here. Check out our recap of the premiere episode right here.

7. Yellowstone (The Paramount Network). There was a time when Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone was one of the biggest TV shows of the last several years. It explored land struggles and high drama on a Montana ranch — and when it was good, it was really good (before going off the rails in its later seasons).

8. On Call (Prime Video). Executive produced by Law & Order’s Dick Wolf, On Call is a police drama that follows a veteran-and-rookie officer duo as they go on patrol in Long Beach, California. Per Prime Video, “Shot with a mixture of hand-held cameras, bodycam and dash-cam footage to create a cinema verité effect, the innovative series explores the morality of protecting and serving a community.”

9. Skeleton Crew (Disney+). Set in the same Star Wars timeline as The Mandalorian, this Disney+ delight follows a group of kids who get lost in the galaxy and have to navigate their way back home. Starring Jude Law, the show blends coming-of-age themes with the action-packed adventure.

10. The Agency (Paramount+ with Showtime). A remake of the iconic French spy series Le Bureau des Légendes, this atmospheric spy thriller stars Michael Fassbender as a CIA officer in London who comes in from the cold. A breath of fresh air in a genre that too often serves up silly tripe like Netflix’s new Back in Action.

Andy Meek Trending News Editor

Andy Meek is a reporter based in Memphis who has covered media, entertainment, and culture for over 20 years. His work has appeared in outlets including The Guardian, Forbes, and The Financial Times, and he’s written for BGR since 2015. Andy's coverage includes technology and entertainment, and he has a particular interest in all things streaming.

Over the years, he’s interviewed legendary figures in entertainment and tech that range from Stan Lee to John McAfee, Peter Thiel, and Reed Hastings.