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Manila Bulletin devider Entertainment devider Movies and TV devider 'Stranger Things,' 'Pushpa 2: The Rule' win top honors at 8th Annual Global Demand Awards

'Stranger Things,' 'Pushpa 2: The Rule' win top honors at 8th Annual Global Demand Awards

Published Jan 16, 2026 12:50 pm
(Clockwise from top left) "Stranger Things," "Pushpa 2: The Rule," "Squid Game" and ""IT: Welcome To Derry" (Photos: Netflix, IMDB, Brooke Palmer/HBO)
(Clockwise from top left) "Stranger Things," "Pushpa 2: The Rule," "Squid Game" and ""IT: Welcome To Derry" (Photos: Netflix, IMDB, Brooke Palmer/HBO)

“Stranger Things” and the pan-India action film “Pushpa 2: The Rule” secured the top honors at the 8th Annual Global Demand Awards by Parrot Analytics. 

Parrot Analytics announced the winners of the awards, which recognized the world’s most in-demand TV series and movies of 2025. 

The winners of the Global Demand Awards are not voted on by committees. Instead, winners are determined by Parrot Analytics’ global audience demand measurement system, which tracks the daily demand for over 60,000 series and movies across more than 100 markets. 

Parrot Analytics  said the methodology captures the full spectrum of audience behavior-- viewership, social interaction, and consumer research actions–to identify the titles that truly won the battle in the global attention economy in 2025.

It said the 2025 winners reflected an entertainment industry that was no longer competing for “more hours watched” but for high-value engagement - where a title’s ability to trigger consumer behavior (watching, sharing, searching and rewatching) across markets and platforms is what determines commercial impact.

“This year’s winners show what the market is rewarding right now: content that creates synchronized global moments, and stories that win globally by staying true to their local roots,” said Samuel Stadler, vice president for marketing at Parrot Analytics. 

He added, “The last season of ‘Stranger Things’ didn’t just perform - it tested the limits of Netflix’s infrastructure, driving massive, concentrated engagement. Elsewhere in the world, the second installment of ‘Pushpa’ demonstrates how South Asian cinema has become a global force, activating diaspora audiences and competing head-to-head with Hollywood franchises. In a profitability-driven era where every greenlight is a capital allocation decision, demand is the clearest, most scalable signal of what audiences value - and where sustainable value is being created.”

The winners of the 8th Annual Global Demand Awards (Parrot Analytics)
The winners of the 8th Annual Global Demand Awards (Parrot Analytics)

“Stranger Things” 

Netflix’s “Stranger Things” won the World’s Choice-Most In-Demand TV Show in the World, Most In-Demand Drama Series of 2025 and Most In-Demand Horror Series of 2025. 

Parrot Analytics said the final season of “Stranger Things: delivered platform-crashing intensity, causing a brief Netflix outage despite a 30 percent bandwidth increase. 

With 59.6 million views in five days–a 171 percent increase over season 4–the premiere drove such synchronized demand that it propelled every previous season back into the Netflix Top 10.

"Stranger Things" (Netflix)
"Stranger Things" (Netflix)
"Stranger Things" (Netflix)
"Stranger Things" (Netflix)
"Stranger Things" (Netflix)

“Pushpa”  

“Pushpa 2: The Rule won five awards in the film category: World’s Choice-Most In-Demand Movie in the World 2025, Most In-Demand Movie Premiere of 2025 (45-day window), Most In-Demand Action Movie of 2025, Most In-Demand Drama Movie of 2025 and Most In-Demand Asian Export of 2025.

Grossing over $200 million worldwide and outperforming its predecessor by more than 5 times in North America, the film used a strict 56-day theatrical window to maximize engagement.  

"Pushpa 2: The Rule" (Photo from IMDB)

In TV regional categories, the winners illustrate how global success is increasingly driven by authentic local identity, not one-size-fits-all content. 

Netflix’s “The Eternaut (El Eternauta)” won Most In-Demand Latin American Original Series of 2025, a landmark example of a highly local story achieving global scale while delivering measurable real-world economic impact, injecting an estimated 41 billion Argentine pesos (approx. $34 million) into the local economy.

Netflix’s “Squid Game” won Most In-Demand Asian Original Series, exemplifying elite travelability by hitting No. 1 in 92 countries. 

“Squid Game” season 3 garnered 60.1 million views in just three days, setting a new record for the fastest three-day start for any series on Netflix and surpassing the debut pace of season 2, which had previously broken the premiere-week record of “Wednesday” by amassing 68 million views in its first four days.

The franchise reinforces the long-term global scalability of Korean storytelling and the continuing strength of the “K-content” flywheel, Parrot Analytics said. 

"Squid Game" (Netflix)
"IT: Welcome To Derry" (Brooke Palmer/HBO)

The finalists in the TV category were determined based on global audience demand data for the period Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2025.

A TV series was only included if the show was released in the 2025 calendar year, or if any new episodes were released in the 2025 calendar year.

Children's content and anime were excluded from the following categories: Most In-Demand Asian Original Series, Most In-Demand European Original Series and Most In-Demand Latin American Original Series as they already have their own dedicated categories.

For movies, the analysis timeframe that was applied was Nov. 1, 2024 to Oct. 31, 2025 to ensure that US holiday season movie releases were captured. Movies were only included if the film was released in that period. 

For the Most In-Demand Classic Film category, films that premiered in 2005 and before were included. 

Here are the winners at the 8th Annual Global Demand Awards:

TV 

World’s Choice - Most In-Demand TV Show in the World 2025: Stranger Things

Most In-Demand Series Debut of 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry

Most In-Demand Anime Series of 2025: My Hero Academia

Most In-Demand Children’s Series of 2025: SpongeBob SquarePants

Most In-Demand Comedy Series of 2025: Saturday Night Live

Most In-Demand Documentary Series of 2025: Formula 1: Drive to Survive

Most In-Demand Drama Series of 2025: Stranger Things

Most In-Demand Horror Series of 2025: Stranger Things

Most In-Demand Reality Series of 2025: The Voice (US)

Most In-Demand Superhero Series of 2025: Invincible

Most In-Demand Asian Original Series of 2025: Squid Game

Most In-Demand European Original Series of 2025: Black Mirror

Most In-Demand Latin American Original Series of 2025: The Eternaut (El Eternauta)

Movies 

World’s Choice - Most In-Demand Movie in the World 2025: Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2

Most In-Demand Movie Premiere of 2025 (45-day window): Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2

Most In-Demand Action Movie of 2025: Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2

Most In-Demand Animated Movie of 2025: Mufasa: The Lion King

Most In-Demand Comedy Movie of 2025: Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3

Most In-Demand Documentary Movie of 2025: No Other Land

Most In-Demand Drama Movie of 2025: Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2

Most In-Demand Horror Movie of 2025: Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3

Most In-Demand Asian Export of 2025: Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2

Most In-Demand European Export of 2025: Gladiator II

Most In-Demand Latin American Export of 2025: Diablo

Most In-Demand Classic Film of 2025: Titanic

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