Feb 15, 2021

Report Avatar: The Last Airbender was the most popular animated children's show on Netflix last year.

Fifteen years after its Nickelodeon premiere, "Avatar: The Last Airbender" is still going strong: the cartoon-flavored fantasy show was the most-watched animated children's series on Netflix in the US last year, according to an NPD Group study.

Coming in second on the market research firm's chart was "Boss Baby": a spin-off of the popular DreamWorks Animation film. The anime classic "Naruto" was third, and "The Legend of Korra," a sequel to "Avatar," was eighth.

Notably, "Back in Business" was the only Netflix exclusive in the top 10 (and it was produced by DreamWorks, not the company itself), as Netflix's original content is far behind the platform's licensed content. It will be interesting to see if the percentage of exclusives on this chart increases as Netflix ramps up its animation production.

Another takeaway is that relatively old series have staying power. Six series in the top 10 premiered before 2010 (including Avatar); Back in Business, which premiered in April 2018, was the most recent show on this chart. Also, as noted by The NPD Group, nine of the 10 series had toys licensed from the original TV show.

It should be emphasized that this study is not based on official data, as Netflix does not publish regular and comprehensive audience figures; The NPD Group used its own system to estimate how many minutes each show was watched.

Below is the full chart from the NPD: