British TV’s Most-Watched In 2025: ‘Celebrity Traitors’ Imperious; ‘Adolescence’ Tops Streaming; Plus ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Monster Success

The Celebrity Traitors was comfortably the most-watched show on British television in 2025, marking an imperious year for the Claudia Winkleman-hosted reality series, according to analysis from Deadline.

The BBC show inspired watch parties and was the talk of the nation for weeks, as comedian Alan Carr went undetected as a traitor and ultimately triumphed in a thrilling final episode in November.

The Season 1 finale was watched by an audience of 15.4M, according to 28-day viewing figures published by Barb, the UK’s official television ratings body.

This made it the highest-rated episode of the season and the biggest single title on British television in 2025. Although 28-day viewing figures are not yet available for the full year, no other show is likely to come close to The Celebrity Traitors.

Below is a run-down of the 10 best-performing titles on TV and streaming in 2025. It does not contain the final six weeks of the year, but is unlikely to change much. The most plausible entrant may be a late-season episode of Strictly Come Dancing, which could creep into the lower echelons of the top 10.

Top 10 Series & Films On British TV

The ranking reveals that not only did The Celebrity Traitors perform strongly, but its civilian sister show The Traitors also figured, with its highest-rated episode attracting 10.8M viewers early in the year.

Impressively, a single production company, Studio Lambert, clinched three spots in the top 10 as Race Across The World (also produced for the BBC) snatched ninth place with 8.3M viewers. The reality format’s celebrity version also performed well, premiering with 7.9M viewers, putting it just outside the top 10.

The BBC laid claim to half the titles in the table, with Netflix and ITV each picking up two places apiece. Channel 4 managed a single spot, thanks to the enduring popularity of The Great British Bake Off, which cooked up an audience of 8.72M for the first instalment in Season 16.

For all the talk of U.S. streamers unsettling the natural order of UK television, the table provides a timely reminder that traditional networks still have the power to gather huge audiences with the right shows.

Adolescence was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the highest-rated title in streaming in 2025. The four-part knife crime drama’s opening episode was watched by 13.2M viewers after 28 days, according to Barb, making it the breakout hit of the year.

Globally, the story of a British teenager radicalized by the manosphere became Netflix’s second most-watched series of all time. It went on to win eight Emmys and will likely dominate the BAFTA TV Awards when the event rolls around in May.

Top 10 Series In Streaming

Elsewhere in streaming, Netflix dominated the top 10 series with eight entries. British shows, including Harlan Coben’s Missing You, Hostage, and Dept. Q, featured heavily. Stranger Things‘ final season also appeared, even though this was only a seven-day viewing figure. The drama will rise up the ranking when the 28-day figure is published.

Amazon’s Prime Video grabbed two places. Clarkson’s Farm remained hugely popular with British viewers, while the streamer had a fresh hit in the shape of comedy competition show LOL: Last One Laughing UK. Both series will return in 2026.

Other points of order: there was no place for the final season of Squid Game in the top 10, despite the Korean drama being Netflix’s most-watched franchise in recent years. Disney+ failed to register a single series in the top 20, let alone the top 10.

Over in films, The Thursday Murder Club topped the ranking with 10M viewers, which also bagged the Richard Osman adaptation sixth-place in the top 10 titles on British TV last year. With four other books in the series, it would be a surprise if Netflix does not revisit the cosy crime world of Coopers Chase.

Top 10 Films In Streaming

Netflix dominated the ranking, thanks in part to savvy acquisitions like The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Paddington in Peru. Disney+ managed one spot in the shape of Moana 2.

Not featured is Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which premiered in late November and had 3.6M viewers after seven days of viewing. The Rian Johnson-directed franchise will almost certainly force its way into the top 10 once 28-day viewing is counted.

Another film not in the top 10 is KPop Demon Hunters, but don’t let that fool you about the success of the Sony Pictures Animation title in the UK. The feature managed 3.2M viewers in its first week on Netflix, but its longevity was astonishing.

KPop Demon Hunters appeared in Barb’s weekly list of the top 50 titles on British TV for 19 consecutive weeks, an achievement that is almost certainly unprecedented. The movie’s best week came nearly two months after it was first released, when it was watched by 5.5M viewers.