Art & Culture

Adolescence tops Netflix charts with more than 24 million views in four days

Fans are calling it the 'best show ever'.

Emily Sergeant - 19th March 2025

New British series Adolescence has shot right to the top of Netflix’s most-watched TV charts after more than 24 million people tune in.

Hitting the streaming platform just last Thursday, Adolescence is a four-part limited series about a 13-year-old boy who is accused of murdering one of his classmates, with each episode remarkably being filmed in one unflinching and continuous shot. 

This truly gripping story unfolds in real time as the main characters search for answers in the wake of a shocking tragedy. 

Who is actually responsible? Why did it happen? And could it have been prevented?

Co-created and written by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, with Graham starring alongside an ensemble cast of accomplished actors such as Ashley Walters and Erin Doherty, as well as screen newcomer Owen Cooper as the young boy Eddie Miller, accused of murder, the show tells the story of how a family’s world is turned upside.

“We could have made a drama about gangs and knife crime, or about a kid whose mother is an alcoholic or whose father is a violent abuser,” Stephen Graham said ahead of the show‘s release. 

“Instead, we wanted you to look at this family and think, ‘My God, this could be happening to us.’ And what’s happening here is an ordinary family’s worst nightmare.”

Over the course of the four intense one-shot episodes, the show shines a uncomfortable spotlight on and examines key themes such as male rage, the dangers of social media, cyberbullying, incel culture, and more.

The latest viewing figures show that Adolescence undoubtedly has been a runaway hit, with a whopping 24.3 million views amassed in its first four days of availability, making it the streaming platform’s top show for the week of 10-16 March.

As the show continues to garner universal acclaim, standing at 98% on notable critic website Rotten Tomatoes, those viewing figures are set to clock up thick and fast as the days go on.

While Adolescence and Jamie’s story isn’t based on a real person or event specifically, Graham, Thorne, and director Philip Barantini have confirmed that the idea for the series did spring from reports that co-creator Graham had heard about on the news of young boys being involved in knife crimes – particularly the shocking 2021 murder of Ava White in Liverpool.

Much of Adolescence was filmed in Pontefract in West Yorkshire, with the casting of Cooper in the role of Jamie ultimately influencing where the show was shot.

“We knew it was going to be set somewhere in the North of England, and we also knew it would be from somewhere around wherever our Jamie was from – in this case near Warrington – because it would have been unfair to make him do an accent,” explained director Philip Barantini. 

All four episodes of Adolescence are now available to stream on Netflix.

Featured Image – Netflix