As long as I’ve had the dexterity to flip channels, I’ve found solace from burger-flipping eccentrics — first through watching SpongeBob SquarePants as a kid, and later Bob’s Burgers. The fact that these shows are still wildly popular after years on the air, despite ever-changing trends in television and the ways we watch it, is comforting.
I’m not alone in my love of cartoons. The biggest streaming show of 2025 so far isn’t the Emmy-winning hospital drama The Pitt, the often-discussed vacation dramedy The White Lotus or even tried-and-true old episodes of Friends. It’s Bluey, the animated children’s program about a talking dog who lives in Australia.
According to a report from market research firm Nielsen, U.S. audiences streamed more than 25 billion minutes of Bluey between January and June 2025. The second most-watched show was Grey’s Anatomy, followed by NCIS, but animated shows had a strong presence across the board. Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, SpongeBob SquarePants, American Dad! and South Park are all among the 20 most-watched shows.
These are the most-watched animated shows, according to Nielsen data.
Bluey is a bit of a unicorn — it’s new compared to the other shows on the list, premiering in 2018 and taking the world by storm. It’s been lauded as one of the best shows for kids of our time, also beloved by the parents who watch it with their little ones. But the Nielsen list makes clear that animation is something you grow up alongside — many of these popular shows have been on TV consistently since the late 1990s, with audiences that continue to tune in for more.
The high watch times for cartoons could be enormous for a few practical reasons. Many of these shows have vast catalogs — Family Guy has 450 22-minute episodes and Bluey has 154 7-minute episodes, compared to buzzy live-action comedies and dramas that typically have between 10 to 20 longer episodes — so there are fundamentally more minutes of them to watch. Animated series rarely follow narrative arcs across multiple episodes or deal with major changes to characters and settings, so viewers can easy jump in at any point during a season. They also serve as both a lighthearted distraction from the world and as entertainment that it’s OK to not give your full attention to.
Bluey characters Bandit, Chilli, Bingo and Bluey. (Disney+/Courtesy of Everett Collection)
Cartoons aren’t just lovable because they’re easy to follow. Tj Bitter, executive director at creative studio OddBeast, tells Yahoo that the art itself “taps into our imagination much quicker than live action can.”
“When you’re watching something animated, your brain doesn’t have to stretch reality to wonder why a cat and a dog share the same long body (like Nickelodeon’s CatDog), and that opens a door to endless possibilities of storytelling,” he says.
Cartoons can produce so much more than just the visuals we’re used to seeing in our everyday lives. It’s a bit like magic, animator Brandon Kosters tells Yahoo. That makes them a perfect medium for kids, who tend to let their imaginations run wild. The fact that Bluey and SpongeBob are often associated with childhood further cultivates feelings of warmth.
To rack up viewership numbers like these, though, it’s clear that children aren’t the only ones tuning in — adults are too. Not only do they fondly remember the shows they watched in their youth, but they’re willing to watch them over and over again with their own children.
“Animation is compelling to people for the same reason that magic tricks and puppetry are,” Kosters says. “There is the nostalgic element, and the part that evokes warm memories from childhood, but there’s another part, which deals with our innate need to suspend disbelief, and explore spaces which feel fantastic.”
Even when cartoons aren’t for kids, like Family Guy or South Park, they still tap into that over-the-top fantasy realm that makes everything feel possible. That’s why so many of them are used as a vehicle for social and political commentary, as Paul Downs, interim head of the computer animation department at Ringling College of Art and Design, tells Yahoo.
“Animation has actually grown up with us. It still carries the bright colors and catchy theme songs, but pairs them with heightened satire and social commentary,” Downs says. “It’s the only art form where a talking dog can be the family’s moral compass, a burger-flipping dad can be a feminist icon and a group of fourth graders can engage in geopolitical debate.”
Eric Cartman in South Park. (Comedy Central)
South Park takes this to the extreme. In its current season, which premiered in July, the show lampoons President Donald Trump by showing him in bed with Satan, the Israel-Gaza conflict by featuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being berated to submission by a character’s mom and Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr by burying him in a mountain of excrement.
Exploring real-life themes doesn’t give cartoons a short shelf life, though. They are packed with visual gags and cultural references that encourage people to view them over and over again. The consistency of the characters and their settings makes them easy for fandoms to revisit.
“Unlike live-action casts that change or age out, animated characters are eternal … Stewie [Griffin] or Tina Belcher will always look and sound like themselves,” Stacy Jones, CEO of influencer marketing company Hollywood Branded, tells Yahoo.
Louise Belcher, Tina Belcher, Bob Belcher, Linda Belcher and Gene Belcher in Bob’s Burgers. (Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Cartoon fandoms are loyal, consistently so, Jones says. People who love these shows want to buy merchandise featuring their favorite characters on T-shirts, lunchboxes and even fast-food tie-ins. There are real-life restaurant pop-ups for Family Guy, albums and cookbooks for Bob’s Burgers and an entire budding lifestyle brand for Bluey. Merch becomes a walking billboard that then advertises the shows to broader audiences, which keeps people talking about them years after they first premiered. They become an integral part of our culture. TV trends may change, but cartoons will always stay the same.
We can count on them for consistency when we need it most. That familiarity sustains cartoons as a business, cements their place in nostalgia history and keeps us coming back for more — all while providing a break from the real world. No wonder we love cartoons so much.
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