JustWatch Streaming Charts: 2024 Edition

These are the movies and TV shows US consumers have been most interested in over the past year


Poor Things
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things is not a typical example of mainstream film making by any stretch of the imagination, so it’s great to see it claim a spot among other, movies enjoying much broader exposure. (Image: Searchlight Pictures)


Movie and TV show fans have never had it so good when it comes to the content options available for the consumer market: there are currently more than a dozen different streaming services delivering all kinds of movies or series straight to their TV sets, literally at the touch of a button. With that amount of new content being released every month, though, which films or TV shows are more likely to be worth each viewer’s precious time? Which movies or series are most people interested in knowing about?

That’s where JustWatch comes in. It’s a Web service designed to collect and present information on every movie or TV show featured in practically all streaming services operating around the world today, in one place. Visitors can create a free account, pick their country of residence – content it’s often different or even unavailable in various regions – define the streaming services they are interested in and get recommendations based on their preferences and searches. Consumers can then use the same account on the free JustWatch apps available for their Smart TV, streaming device, smartphone or tablet in order to always have new suggestions available on what’s hot and recommended on every streaming platform.

Based on user interest – as dictated by information searches, adding titles to a watchlist, marking titles as “seen” etc. – JustWatch is able to put together Top Ten charts of movies and TV shows across all streaming services operating in a given country, every month. The relevant data is collected from more than 50 million movie and TV show fans every month and updated daily for 140 countries and 4.500 streaming services in total. For the entirety of 2024, these are the films that consumers in the United States have been more interested in.

JustWatch
It seems that during an election year, in a country as politically divided as the United States currently is, films like Civil War can draw way more attention and interest than they normally would. (Image: JustWatch.com)


Based on the same information, these are the TV shows that consumers in the United States have shown the most interest in over the past year.

JustWatch
It’s fair to say that established franchises and popular brand names pretty much ruled the JustWatch TV shows chart last year. Here’s hope that more spots are claimed by more unconventional productions in 2025. (Image: JustWatch.com)


Even a casual glance at the movies chart reveals a number of interesting things. Few would expect, for instance, Civil War to claim the JustWatch top spot for 2024, but then again not only was this a controversial film to begin with, but one that was released on an election year too, about a country that seems more divided than ever in real life. Big box office hits claim several other spots, as expected, but it’s great to see that movies not necessarily made for mainstream audiences, such as Poor Things and Anatomy of a Fall, are also included. Even films belonging to genres that have seemingly grow out of fashion, such as Godzilla Minus One, managed to find a place among a number of hard hitters.

The same cannot be said about the TV shows chart, were established franchises and popular brand names pretty much ruled the day. Hats off to Shogun, obviously, for being more than the lazy remake it could have been, as well as to Slow Horses for not compromising on quality despite the tiny market share of the streaming service offering it. Resident Alien is the outlier here, managing to secure a spot against other TV shows enjoying more exposure or loyal followings – Arcane or Only Murders in the Building come to mind – as well as Fallout, which attracted much more interest than what its video game roots could reasonably justify.

Shogun
Shogun proved to be one of the most interesting TV shows on FX/Disney Plus last year, winning a number of awards worldwide. Its top spot in the JustWatch TV shows chart for 2024 is well-deserved. (Image: FX/Disney)


It’s fair to say that 2024 was a good enough, but hardly remarkable year in terms of films and TV shows: the number of mediocre, disappointing productions of both kinds was rather high, barely balanced by the decidedly smaller number of exceptional, inspiring ones (some of which did not appear in these charts). There are a lot of highly anticipated movies and TV shows coming in 2025, though, so here’s hope that they will strive to offer more in terms of memorable, meaningful entertainment. With streaming services getting more and more expensive each year that’s not too much to ask, is it?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Kostas Farkonas

Veteran reporter and business consultant with over 30 years of industry experience in various media and roles, focusing on consumer tech, modern entertainment and digital culture.

Veteran reporter and business consultant with over 30 years of industry experience in various media and roles, focusing on consumer tech, modern entertainment and digital culture.