Netflix's 2020 trends: Tiger King, Love Is Blind and other series that helped us escape a pandemic
From stand-up specials to home baking shows, Netflix viewers were looking for a break from news about COVID-19.
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Tiger King was popular escapism in 2020.
In 2020, Netflix viewers channeled a lot of feelings into what they watched.
A report out Thursday on viewing habits for the year from Netflix shows that during the coronavirus pandemic, people embraced romance and reality TV, among other things, as they found themselves stuck at home. And in 2020, escapism was heavily sought after.
From March to April, Netflix saw a spike in the viewership of stand-up specials. Docuseries like Tiger King won big, and dating-based reality shows Love Is Blind and Too Hot to Handle ended up being the most popular reality shows on the platform. People watched twice as much romance as last year.
It wasn't all laughs and love, though. April also saw a 30% increase in searches for "sad movies" from March, and while many were baking bread and tending to their sourdough starters, searches for "home baking shows" jumped 50% from the previous month. And in a year where travel wasn't an option, interest in foreign-language titles rose more that 50%.