Roku Rewind 2025 reports on the top trends in streaming this year, including movies, Gen Z favourites, binge-watching stats, and more. From Saturday Night Live’s 50th season to Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift’s engagement, Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show, and more, Roku customers streamed, searched, and binged their way through content.
Based on data from Roku’s 90 million streaming households here’s what the streaming company found.
Top TV Moments of 2025
Searches for the milestone 50th Season of NBC’s Saturday Night Live peaked around its anniversary special in February, with top-searched episodes hosted by Ariana Grande, Jean Smart, and Shane Gillis.
After the Emmys, searches for award winners like The Studio, Severance, and Adolescence more than doubled.
Surprisingly, Peacock’s Love Island USA was the number-one searched show on Roku this summer, with searches growing 180% versus the prior season.
Top Movie Genres
Original horror surged in 2025, led by the breakout film Sinners, which generated more than twice the search volume of the next highest horror title. The genre grew 20% year over year, thanks to this original title.
In the days after the election of Pope Leo XIV, Chicago-area Roku homes were 42% more likely than the rest of the country to search for the movie Conclave, proving that real-world events influence streaming behaviours.
Adam Sandler and Ariana Grande topped Roku’s most-searched actor lists thanks to megahits like Happy Gilmore 2 and Wicked.
Top Sports Streaming Trends
Fans of Apple TV’s golf comedy Stick streamed real golf, with Stick viewers were 2.8x times more likely than Happy Gilmore 2 to search for The Masters, a top golf streaming event.
NFL teams were the most favourited in 24 states on the Roku Sports Zone, with MLB loyalty dominating the coasts and across the Great Lakes.
Roku searches grew 275%, outpacing auto racing (75%) and MMA (69%) as the fastest-growing sports on the platform.
Gen Z Streaming Trends
Nearly two in three Roku searches from Gen Z, the oldest of whom are 28 years old, were for animated titles, including anime, adult animation, and animated films that have cult-like followings.
TV Viewing Trends That Defined 2025
Roku viewing data revealed patterns that defy assumptions about how Americans stream. In 2025, Mississippi streamed more hours per capita than any other state, followed by Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, and West Virginia.
January was the binge-iest month, with more than one in three sessions lasting eight hours or longer. Still, the top streaming weekend of the year followed Thanksgiving, showing that people love to binge while they are home for the holidays.
The median Roku household streamed across nine apps in 2025, three of which were free to watch. During the year, the average home added four new apps and dropped four.
Looking Ahead
Roku Rewind 2025 found that streaming behaviour is diverse and fast-moving. It often mirrors real-life trends and events, which can impact our viewing habits.