Netflix reveals most popular soccer films and shows
Netflix has been a part of the American cultural lexicon since the early 2000s. Of course, back then, it mailed out DVDs to your mailbox. When they moved to a full-time streaming service, popularity exploded. And there is plenty of soccer peppered throughout the vast library of Netflix content. Thanks to recent data from the company, we can see which soccer movies, shows, and documentaries are the most popular.
Soccer programming on Netflix: running the numbers
Netflix recently released their viewing figures for January to June 2023. Rather than by total views, Netflix sorts its data by hours viewed. And for some programming, that is a lot of hours. The most watched overall program in the first half of 2023? That would be season one of The Night Agent. Viewers totaled 812,100,000 hours of viewership. That works out to almost 34 million days of watch time.
For soccer-related programming, the numbers are not so mind-boggling. Soccer on Netflix can range from documentaries to fictional TV shows and movies. Selections from each category are featured among the most-viewed soccer programs on the platform. Note that these viewing figures do not include the new USWNT documentary Under Pressure, which came out this week.
So, what is the most-viewed soccer title on Netflix? The answer might surprise you.
Most-viewed soccer programming on Netflix
| Title | Hours Viewed |
| She’s the Man | 9,600,000 |
| The Soccer Football Movie | 8,100,000 |
| Neymar: The Perfect Chaos | 5,100,000 |
| Bad Sport: Volume 1 | 4,400,000 |
| The English Game: Season 1 | 4,100,000 |
| Pelé: Birth of a Legend (2016) | 3,800,000 |
| Pelé (2021) | 3,700,000 |
| Holy Goalie | 1,400,000 |
| Captains: Season 1 | 1,300,000 |
| The Figo Affair: The Transfer that Changed Football | 1,200,000 |
| Baggio: The Divine Ponytail | 1,100,000 |
| The Playbook: Season 1 | 1,000,000 |
| The Hand of God | 900,000 |
| Shaolin Soccer | 600,000 |
| Sunderland ‘Til I Die: Season 1 | 600,000 |
| Ultras | 600,000 |
| Sunderland ‘Til I Die: Season 2 | 500,000 |
| Maradona in Mexico | 400,000 |
| Senzo: Murder of a Soccer Star: Season 1 | 400,000 |
| The Fight for Justice: Paolo Guerrero: Season 1 | 400,000 |
| Anelka: Misunderstood | 200,000 |
| Boca Juniors Confidential: Season 1 | 200,000 |
| Diego Maradona | 200,000 |
| First Team: Juventus: Season 1: Part A | 100,000 |
| First Team: Juventus: Season 1: Part B | 100,000 |
Yep. Remember that 2006 Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum movie where a high school girl pretends to be her twin brother on the school soccer team? That was the most popular soccer-related movie on Netflix in the first half of 2023. With over nine million hours viewed, it earned the top spot.
But beyond teen rom-coms, there is plenty of more intelligent football programming that was popular, too.
Content for the soccer fan
Documentaries on some of the biggest names in the sport like Pelé, Maradona and Figo were big. In addition, profiles on clubs including the acclaimed Sunderland ‘Til I Die plus exposés on Boca Juniors and Juventus made the list too.
Then there were lighter entries, like the 2001 Hong Kong comedy Shaolin Soccer and Holy Goalie, which chronicles a team of monks playing to save their monastery from being turned into a hotel.
Certainly, if you are looking to dive into some soccer programming when there are no games on, there’s no shortage of footy flicks available. Plus, there is more to come. Netflix announced plans for a documentary about the 2022 World Cup.