Netflix's 32-Episode R-Rated Erotic Series Is Officially One Of 2026's Biggest Hits

Published Oct 12, 2026, 7:21 PM EDT

Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.

Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."

Netflix has had many hits in 2026 with both new and returning TV shows, but there is no denying that this TV-MA erotic series stands among those at the very top of the list when it comes to this year's offerings from the streamer. Netflix has done a phenomenal job of creating exciting multi-season series that keep viewers coming back for more.

Sure, Netflix's limited series are also hits, as 2026 shows like I Will Find You and His & Hers have shown by breaking into the streamer's all-time TV show charts, with the former still there. However, most of that list is dominated by Netflix series that have aired multiple seasons on the streamer. For instance, both Stranger Things and Wednesday have multiple seasons on the official Netflix chart.

Stranger Things consolidated itself over the years as Netflix's flagship series. While it has since ended, an animated spin-off, Stranger Things: Tales from '85, has already released two seasons. Netflix's list of successful multi-season shows runs wide, from early hits like the now-controversial House of Cards to more recent streaming sensations like the rom-com Nobody Wants This and Guy Ritchie's crime thriller The Gentlemen, the streamer has done well in that regard.

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One of the multi-season Netflix series that continues to showcase why the streaming service is right to not only keep bringing it back for more seasons, but also build a multi-show franchise around it, is Bridgerton. The steamy romance series was an instant global hit back when season 1 released in 2020, and in 2026, it has proved itself one of the year's biggest Netflix success stories.

Bridgerton Brought The Streaming Numbers For Netflix In 2026 So Far

Credit: Liam Daniel/Netflix

According to data from FlixPatrol, Bridgerton season 4, which focused on the romance between Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) and Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha), stands as the 2nd most-watched Netflix TV show in terms of total views from January to June 2026, the first semester of the year. Views are counted by dividing the total hours viewed of a show/season by its runtime. Bridgerton season 4 only lost to the Jon Bernthal and Tessa Thompson crime thriller miniseries, His & Hers, which amassed 104 million views against the erotic series' latest season's 100.2 million views. In hours watched, Bridgerton season 4 leads the chart with 889.8 million.

When taking into account all seasons of a TV show, Bridgerton stands as Netflix's most-watched series for the first half of 2026, as per FlixPatrol. That metric puts the romance series at a total of 166.6 million views, beating Stranger Things' 149.2 million views. Bridgerton's four seasons also defeated Stranger Things' five seasons when it came to the total hours viewed on Netflix from January to June, with the TV-MA erotic series amassing 1.435 billion hours watched against the sci-fi horror show's 1.401 billion. According to official Netflix data, Bridgerton trended on Netflix's global Top 10 chart for nine weeks.

Netflix Continues To Build The Bridgerton Universe

Bridgerton's spot as one of Netflix's biggest TV shows of 2026 so far as the series looks forward to its 5th season proves why the streaming service is so keen on building an entire Bridgerton universe. There are eight main Bridgerton novels by author Julia Quinn, each telling the love story of one of the Bridgerton siblings. At this point, it is safe to assume that all of those are getting adapted. In addition to that, Netflix has already released a Bridgerton spin-off, the miniseries Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.

The Bridgerton universe is set to expand once again with another prequel series, as Netflix has announced that a new Bridgerton spin-off focused on a young Lady Violet and her romance with Viscount Edmund Bridgerton will come to the streaming service. This will be another limited series. Based on how Bridgerton remains a consistent hit for Netflix, it makes sense that the streamer is moving full steam ahead on that universe, and there are no reasons why that should slow down, with more Bridgerton spin-offs likely to get announced as the show's eight-season plan continues to unfold.

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  Luke Thompson

  Lady Violet Bridgerton

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  Ruth Gemmell

  Benedict Bridgerton