Minions on Netflix revealed to top streaming ratings for 2024 – but two BBC hits reigned supreme for TV
Ofcom has released its Media Nations Report revealing the most watch shows and films of last year.
The figures have been revealed for the UK's most watched shows and films on television in 2024 – with two BBC hits topping the list.
The Gavin & Stacey finale and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl – both of which aired on BBC One on Christmas Day – ranked number one and two on the list, with 18.6 million and 16.9 million viewers respectively when combining overnight and catch-up figures, according to official Barb data.
Taking third spot was Mr Bates v The Post Office on ITV, with its highest rated episode drawing in a total of 14.7 million viewers, meaning that all three top places were taken by shows that aired on linear television.
There was a somewhat surprising entry which ranked top among streaming titles: 2022 film Minions: The Rise of Gru.
The movie placed fourth in the overall list and was watched a total of 13.7 million times on Netflix after the streamer acquired the rights to the movie in 2023, no doubt helped by the release of Despicable Me 4 in cinemas last summer.
That means it ranked ahead of a slew of original Netflix titles, including Fool Me Once, Baby Reindeer and The Gentleman – which came in at fifth, eighth and 10th place respectively.
Two matches from the Euro 2024 Championships in Germany also made the top 10, with ITV's coverage of the semi-final between England and Netherlands ranking just ahead of the BBC's coverage of the final that saw the Three Lions lose to Spain.
The lower figures for the latter match are due to the fact it was broadcast on both BBC One and ITV1 simultaneously, meaning the figures for each of the broadcasters was smaller.
Rounding out the top 10 was the Sing-Along version of Moana on Disney+, which was released almost a decade ago but received a boost after the arrival of a sequel film in cinemas.
The figures were released as part of Ofcom's Media Nations Report, which concluded that "drama and family content proved an important driver for SVoD viewing".
The report continued: "While popular dramas such as Fool Me Once and Baby Reindeer performed particularly well for Netflix, family films also do well for streaming services.
"This highlights the value SVoD platforms place on family-friendly content as a key driver of subscriber retention, particularly as households with children are less likely to cancel their subscriptions than those without."
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
