The 20 most searched for streaming TV box sets in 2018

Ben Falk

11 December 2018 at 11:26 am

The President is dead, long live the President. Kevin Spacey was sacked after his personal conduct came under scrutiny, with Robin Wright Penn ascending to the Oval Room for the sixth and final season.
Photo: Netflix

Sometimes it’s easy to forget this started as a *Breaking Bad* spin-off, mostly due to the brilliant character work by the cast and inspired writing which makes it feel wholly original.
Photo: Netflix

Fans of movie Jason Bateman are often surprised when they see TV Jason in the Ozarks, with its bleak themes, gloomy camerawork, criminal conspiracies.
Photo: Netflix

Without doubt the best of the Marvel Netflix shows, Jessica’s gobby vulnerability – combined with her physical strength – makes for a intriguingly complicated heroine. A second season is imminent, but the character’s future looks bleak on Netflix, as it recently cancelled nearly all its other Marvel shows.
Photo: Netflix

This weird British teen show has flown somewhat under the radar, but those who follow it do with intense fervour. First released in the U.K. on E4, it found a new life and a new audience when it arrived on Netflix here and in America.
Photo: Netflix

This spin-off prequel has found its own feet, following in the footsteps of its bigger sibling by gleefully killing off major characters.
Photo: AMC

It has lost some of its original lustre, but *OITNB* remains one of the most diverse, representative series out there, putting people you don’t usually find on telly on the telly. Its seventh season, coming 2019, will be its last.
Photo: Netflix

This latest series has been an entertaining standalone for those not bound by *Trek* lore, though for some superfans of the franchise, its narrative trickery leaves a lot to be desired. Spock and the Enterprise beckon next season.
Photo: CBS Interactive

Pillaging and mohican hairdos are all the rage in this mud-filled series that will soon air its sixth season.
Photo: Sky

Set mostly in 2384, the show plays with the notion of identity and self, mostly through the very handsome visage that is Joel Kinnaman who plays a reincarnated killer in a neo-noir future.
Photo: Netflix

Forget the Matt LeBlanc movie, this epic Netflix revamp of the 60s sci-fi show was full of action, adventure and a fantastically nefarious Parker Posey.
Photo: Netflix

This soapy potboiler earned plaudits for its A-list cast (Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon) playing a group of mums in a wealthy coastal town who find themselves embroiled in family politicking.
Photo: Sky

Charlie Brooker’s anthology series scares as much as it entertains, while constantly making you wonder whether to chuck all your technology in the river.
Photo: Netflix

Claire Foy and Matt Smith bid farewell to the royal soap opera at the end of the second season and will be replaced by Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies as the Queen and Prince Philip, tackling thorny issues like Princess Margaret’s affair and Charles meeting Diana.
Photo: Netflix

The first season was both lauded and criticized for its depiction of suicidal behavior and the sophomore outing was again challenging and challenged thanks to its tackling of rape (of both men and women) and bullying.
Photo: Netflix

We already know the boys will be back for season three, while Sheriff Hopper’s boogie became a viral hit.
Photo: Netflix

Westworld continues to delight and infuriate in equal measure, juggling spectacularly complicated backstory with philosophical insight with brutal violence. Brilliant performances, including a Golden Globe-winning Thandie Newton hold it all together.
Photo: Sky

It’s been a year of upheaval for the zombie killers, as Andrew Lincoln moved onto pastures new (standalone movies about Rick Grimes), Maggie (Lauren Cohan) left and Darryl (Norman Reedus) took centre stage.
Photo: AMC/AP

The drama moved away from Margaret Atwood’s original novel for its second series and continued to tap into the political zeitgeist, resulting in a bruisingly bleak watch alleviated by the Offred’s inspiring personal rebellion.
Photo: Hulu/AP

All eyes are on the final season – who will live? Who will die? Who will have sex with whom? Meanwhile, *Thrones* won’t strictly disappear, as HBO expand George RR Martin’s world into various prequels and spin-offs.
Photo: Sky

No longer bound by the constraints of the TV schedule, streaming services are constantly adding content and audiences are lapping it up. What makes this list particularly interesting is Netflix and co. are loathe to publish official viewing figures, so getting a sense of what Yahoo users most wanted to know about this year is one of the best indicators of which are the most successful.

The Yahoo Year in Review Methodology
To develop the Yahoo Year in Review, our editors analyse Yahoo Search queries based on a number of factors, including absolute volume and growth from previous periods, to see which themes and trends bubble to the surface. Individuals and their Search queries always remain anonymous. This list is constructed without navigational searches – i.e. searches where the intention is clearly purely to navigate to a site rather than to discover information.