Adolescence revealed to be most-watched show on Netflix in first half of 2025 – as streamer's biggest shows unveiled

When her classmate Jamie (Owen Cooper) is arrested for her murder, it impacts his family as they struggle to wrap their heads around the prospect of their young son committing such a crime.

The show's ruminations on toxic masculinity, rising incel culture and misogyny have been widely praised, with the drama's behind-the-scenes format and director Philip Barantini also garnering public interest after the show's one-shot filming was revealed.

Amid plenty of five-star reviews, Adolescence has continued to affect change in the real-world also with show writer Jack Thorne and producer Jo Johnson having even previously met with Sir Keir Starmer at Downing Street.

As well as ongoing conversations around the possibility of a second season and what that would look like, the series also plummeted young actor Owen Cooper into the spotlight, with many finding it hard to believe that the Netflix series wasn't only his first ever acting job, but also his first time being on set ever.

It was revealed back in March, just a short while after its release, that Adolescence had become the first ever UK streaming show to top the weekly British ratings chart. According to ratings agency Barb, almost 6.5 million viewers watched the first episode in its first week. So, the fact that it continues to smash records is simply a testament to the way it gripped us all.

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Coming in second to Adolescence is another Ashley Walters-starring drama, Missing You, which is part of the wider Harlan Coben Netflix universe and kept us all guessing with its various twists and turns. 58 million tuned in to watch the series, with Black Mirror season 7 following behind with 31 million views, and then Dept. Q with 25 million.

Although Adolescence was originally intended to be a limited series, given the impact of the drama as well as the record-smashing success of it all, it's hard to think that the team behind it will just leave it where it is with one season.

While Netflix haven't officially confirmed anything, Deadline did previously report that Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company was in discussions with director Barantini about a potential second season, after the Hollywood actor worked as a producer on the show.

It's been reported that if it was to go ahead, the series could move forward in a different direction away from Jamie's story and perhaps become more of an anthology series.

Series star Stephen Graham did admit previously in an interview with Variety that "there's the possibility of developing another story" with details remaining under wraps for now.

Writer Jack Thorne did previously say that he doesn’t want a second season of the show because "Jamie’s story is finished".

He told Good Morning Britain: "I don’t think there’s anywhere more we can take Jamie, so I don’t think there is a series 2. We’d love to explore the one-shot format in another way. We’d love to tell other stories with it, but I don’t think a series 2 of Adolescence is quite right for us."

So, we'll just have to watch this space.

Adolescence is available to stream now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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