'Suits' Beats Massive Show's Streaming Record

Suits is smashing yet another streaming record. The USA Network legal drama, which found a new life on Netflix this summer, has officially beat a record previously held by The Office for number of minutes watched in a single year, according to a new report from Nielson analyzing TV viewership in the U.S. in 2023. Suits racked up 57.7 billion total minutes of watch time in 2023, narrowly edging out The Office's 57.1 billion minutes recorded in 2020.

While breaking the 57 billion minute mark is impressive nevertheless, it's important to note that shows with longer and/or more episodes stand at an advantage when it comes to total minutes watched and that Suits' total runtime of about 83 hours made the achievement a bit easier when compared to The Office's 73 hours. The Office's record-setting year occurred when the NBC comedy, which aired its final episode in 2013, was available to stream on Netflix before moving to Peacock in 2021. Suits, meanwhile, concluded on USA in 2019 and was previously available to stream on Peacock, but only gained a second life upon its acquisition by Netflix last year. 

Coming in behind Suits on Nielson's ranking of the most-streamed programs of 2023 were Bluey (43.9 billion minutes), NCIS (39.4 billion minutes), Grey's Anatomy (38.6 billion minutes), Cocomelon (36.3 billion minutes), The Big Bang Theory (27.8 billion minutes), Gilmore Girls (25.2 billion minutes), Friends (25 billion minutes), and Heartland and Supernatural (both 22.8 billion minutes). 

Suits broke streaming records over the summer when it became Netflix's most-viewed acquired streaming title, racking up 3 billion viewing minutes in just the first week. The legal drama is now set for a spinoff that will reportedly be set in Los Angeles "in the same timeframe" as its predecessor. Fans have been left to wonder if Meghan Markle, who exited Suits in Season 7 after getting engaged to Prince Harry, will make an appearance on the new spinoff. 

The Duchess of Sussex previously weighed in on the show's renewed success, telling Variety in November that she had "no idea" what sparked it but added, "It was great to work on, such a great cast and crew. We had a really fun time. I was on it for seven seasons, so quite a bit." She continued, "But it's hard to find a show you can binge-watch that many episodes of these days, so that could have something to do with it. But good shows are everlasting."