Currently celebrating its 60th anniversary season, “Days of our Lives” has been a standout performer on Peacock for several years, consistently appearing on the streaming service’s daily top 10 most watched TV shows list even before becoming exclusive to the platform in September 2022.
In a report released last month, Luminate, a data and insights company that measures and tracks engagement and consumption across music, film and television, highlighted the long-running soap opera as an unlikely success story amid a competitive landscape while also breaking down its overall performance throughout calendar year 2024.
According to the service, Season 59 (169 episodes) of “Days of our Lives” ranked as the second most watched original program on Peacock with 3.1 billion minutes watched, while Season 60 (92 episodes) ranked fourth with 2.4 billion minutes. Only reality dating show “Love Island USA” did better on the streamer with 5.6 billion minutes watched during its 37-episode sixth season.
Closing out Peacock’s top five originals list, the 10-episode first season of political thriller “The Day of the Jackal” ranked third with 2.7 billion minutes watched while the 10-episode first season of the historical drama “Those About to Die” and the 12-episode second season of reality competition series “The Traitors” tied for fifth, each with 1.4 billion minutes.
The rest of the top 10 most watched original shows on Peacock were slightly above or below a billion minutes watched, led by “Bel-Air,” a drama series iteration based on the iconic comedy “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” which had 1.1 billion minutes watched for its 10-episode third season, ranking seventh on the streamer’s originals chart.
Most Watched Peacock Original TV Series in 2024
| Rank / Show | Minutes Watched (In Billions) | Season | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Love Island USA | 5,600 | 6 | 37 |
| 2. Days of our Lives | 3,100 | 59 | 169 (in 2024) |
| 3. The Day of the Jackal | 2,700 | 1 | 10 |
| 4. Days of our Lives | 2,400 | 60 | 92 (in 2024) |
| 5. Those About to Die | 1,400 | 1 | 10 |
| — The Traitors | 1,400 | 2 | 12 |
| 7. Bel-Air | 1,100 | 3 | 10 |
| 8. The Tattooist of Auschwitz | 1,000 | 1 | 6 |
| 9. Ted | 900 | 1 | 7 |
| — Apples Never Fall | 900 | 1 | 7 |
Noting that each new season of “Days of our Lives” runs from August to August, the service said that Season 60 amassed 3.8 billion minutes watched between August 26, 2024 and March 30, 2025, citing the 156 episodes released during the reporting period. Further, Season 60 remained on the overall top 50 streaming original TV shows chart for 31 out of the 32 weeks, peaking at No. 17.
In its 2024 year-end film & TV report, Luminate revealed that the first season of the Disney+ original series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” had 3.070 billion minutes watched, while season one of “The Acolyte,” also on Disney+, had 2.673 billion minutes watched. Meanwhile, Season 60 of the long-running soap opera had more minutes watched since release than that of such high profile shows as “Severance” on Apple TV+ (Season 2), “A Man on the Inside” on Netflix, “Only Murders in the Building” on Hulu/Hulu on Disney+ (Season 4), “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” on Prime Video (Season 2) and “The Pitt” on Max (soon to be re-branded back to HBO Max).
In 2023, Variety reported “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” was estimated to have cost somewhere between $12 million and $15 million per episode, while sources tell Soap Opera Network that a complete season of “Days of our Lives” (north of 250 episodes) is estimated to cost somewhere between $20 million and $30 million, down a bit in cost from when the show was still airing on NBC. Meanwhile, a full season of “General Hospital” on ABC is estimated to cost between $40 and $45 million.
Factoring in the eight most popular streaming services tracked by Luminate and each platform’s share of consumption among U.S. original content viewing time, the performance of “Days of our Lives” is even more noteworthy for Peacock considering Netflix leads all streamers with a 63.5% share, followed by Prime Video in second with 8.5%, Paramount+ in third with 7.8%, Apple TV+ in fourth with 5.3%, and Hulu rounding out the top five with 5.1%. Disney+ ranked sixth with a 4.4% share, followed by Peacock in seventh with 3.1% and Max in eighth place at a mere 1.5%. Falling into the “Other” category at a combined 0.8% were AMC+ (0.4%), Tubi (0.3%) and Discovery+ (0.1%).
Although the performance of “Days of our Lives” can’t be viewed as a pure apples-to-apples comparison, considering most other streaming originals consist of eight to 13 episodes per season, Luminate points out that the show is making a case for itself from a higher-volume approach while maintaining a “steady daily viewership across hundreds of modestly budgeted episodes,” making it a solid bet for Peacock among a foray of more than 400 streaming originals that are currently in various stages of production and awaiting premiere dates this year alone across all platforms, 14 of which are at Peacock.
In April, Comcast, parent of NBCUniversal, which includes Peacock under its umbrella, reported the streamer had 41 million paid subscribers through Q1 2025. The service gained 5 million additional subscribers from Q4 2024 following the addition of Charter Communications subscribers, and was also up from Q3 2024.
Note: Unlike the ratings data regularly published here at Soap Opera Network, which are generally based on Live+Same Day figures compiled by Nielsen, total minutes watched is the standard for tracking the overall performance of streaming content with Nielsen and Luminate being just two of several providers utilized by streamers in monitoring the viewing habits of subscribers.
Streaming viewership for non-originals on Peacock was unavailable at press time. This includes shows like “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and the recently renewed One Chicago franchise (“Chicago Med,” “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago P.D.”).
