In 1955, a six-foot-seven actor named James Arness pinned on a badge and became Marshal Matt Dillon.

America had three networks. If you wanted to watch Gunsmoke, you showed up when CBS told you to show up.

The show ran 20 seasons.
It produced 635 episodes.
It outlived presidents.

When the time slot disappeared, that should have been the end of the story.

It wasn’t.

Last year, Gunsmoke generated 22.5 billion streaming minutes. The average viewer watched 241 episodes, nearly 200 hours in Dodge City.

From a show filmed before the moon landing.

If you were designing the perfect streaming asset in 2026, you probably wouldn’t start with a black-and-white Western from 1955.

In the linear era, that scale filled a broadcast schedule.

In the streaming era, that scale feeds an algorithm.

Let’s break it down into 3 big questions:
1) What does Gunsmoke teach us about the streaming decade?
2) Which streaming shows have the largest audience?
3) Which networks make up the largest viewership share?

What does Gunsmoke teach us about the streaming decade?

Old TV can still win.

According to Nielsen, Gunsmoke was the most-binged show last year.

Per viewer:
1) 241 episodes watched
2) ≈ 197 hours per person

In total:
1) 22.5B minutes streamed
2) 375M hours
3) 1.9M viewers

That’s huge.

In fact, its streaming audience in 2025 was bigger than all of Apple TV+ in 2022, the same year Apple spent $8B on content.

Here’s simple streaming ad math:
1) 375M hours watched
2) 8+ minutes of ads per hour
3) $15 CPM
4) 60% fill rate

Estimated ad revenue:
$54M - $90M per year

Which streaming shows have the largest audience?

Top streaming shows in 2025 by minutes viewed (Nielsen):
1) Bluey (Disney+) - 45B
2) Grey's Anatomy (Hulu / Netflix) - 41B
3) Stranger Things (Netflix) - 40B
4) NCIS (Hulu / Netflix / Paramount+ / Pluto TV) - 37B
5) SpongeBob SquarePants (Paramount+) - 34B
6) Bob's Burgers (Hulu) - 34B
7) Family Guy (Hulu) - 33B
8) The Big Bang Theory (HBO Max) - 32B
9) Law & Order: SVU (Hulu / Peacock) - 27B
10) Criminal Minds (Hulu / Paramount+) - 24B

Top 10 streaming originals in 2025 by minutes viewed:
1) Stranger Things (Netflix) - 40B
2) Squid Game (Netflix) - 22B
3) Wednesday (Netflix) - 20B
4) Landman (Paramount+) - 19B
5) Reacher (Prime Video) - 16B
6) Ginny & Georgia (Netflix) - 14B
7) Love Island USA (Peacock) - 13B
8) The Night Agent (Netflix) - 13B
9) Love Is Blind (Netflix) - 13B
10) Gabby's Dollhouse (Netflix / Prime Video) - 12B

Which networks make up the largest viewership share?

Netflix share of Top 10 minutes (Nielsen):
1) 2020 - 90%
2) 2021 - 86%
3) 2022 - 80%
4) 2023 - 66%
5) 2024 - 50%
6) 2025 - 57%

Netflix still accounts for about 66% of time spent on originals.

That’s a huge edge.

Here’s the wild part.

Netflix even crushes it with shows from other streaming services.

It licensed The Office, Suits, and Parks and Recreation, all from Peacock.

Both platforms had them.

Over five years, they hit Nielsen’s Top 10 132 times.

Netflix accounted for 131 (99%).

Peacock had the same shows.

Netflix had the attention.

Bottom line

Streaming is often framed as a content arms race. Who spends the most on originals wins.

But look at the data.

The most-watched streaming shows in 2025 are dominated by long-running franchises:
1) Bluey
2) Grey's Anatomy
3) NCIS
4) The Big Bang Theory

Streaming hasn't erased television history; it has found a way to repackage it, resell it, and squeeze fresh margin out of something Hollywood had already paid for.

Somewhere in that twist is the real story of the Streaming Decade: the future didn’t kill the past, it's giving it new life.