Football and streaming trends: Germany's TV ratings revealed

Linear TV:

Germany vs. Ghana football match dominates TV as streaming charts shift

Germany's match against Ghana drew a significantly larger audience than Friday's game against Switzerland, with 8.29 million viewers tuning in—compared to 6.00 million in the first half and 7.12 million in the second half of the earlier match. Friday evenings likely see more people occupied with other activities, but in general, national team football games—especially among older demographics—tend to attract higher ratings on public broadcasters ARD and ZDF than on RTL.

With a 34.8% market share, the football match was the undisputed leader in Monday's prime-time slot. Still, ZDF's crime drama rerun, "Dominik's Secret" from the "Under Different Circumstances" series, also outperformed the channel's usual ratings: 4.59 million viewers translated to an impressive 18.5% share. However, many apparently switched over to the football afterward, as the heute journal news program dropped to 3.15 million viewers and a 13.3% share.

Among commercial broadcasters, only RTL and Vox surpassed the one-million mark in the evening. RTL's "The Big Laugh Parade – The Funniest Moments Caught on Camera" drew 1.19 million viewers but a weak 5.4% share by the network's standards, while "Dragon's Den" ("The Lion's Den") attracted 1.14 million—a decent 4.9% share for Vox, given the competition. Sat.1's "Celebrities Under Palm Trees" managed just 0.79 million (3.3%), while Kabel Eins's thriller "Breathless – Dangerous Truth" pulled in 0.77 million (3.2%). RTL II's double episode of "The Geissens" struggled with 0.41 million and 0.44 million viewers (1.7% and 1.8%), and ProSieben's "Jenke." documentary "Experiment Love" hit a low of 0.34 million (1.4%).

The football match performed even better among 14- to 49-year-olds, with 1.96 million in this demographic watching Germany vs. Ghana from 8:50 PM on ARD—a stellar 42.5% share. While these numbers also exceeded Friday's Switzerland game, the gap was narrower than in the overall audience. On Friday, RTL's two halves drew 1.64 million and 1.88 million viewers (36.1% and 43.1%). Later that night, the documentary "The Apple Story" benefited from the strong lead-in, retaining 0.23 million viewers after 11:30 PM for a solid 12.4% share.

In the 14- to 49-year-old demographic, Vox claimed second place in prime time with 0.35 million viewers (8.2%). Though below the show's typical performance, this still exceeded the channel's 12-month average, given the football competition. RTL's "The Big Laugh Parade" fared poorly with 0.24 million (5.8%), as did ProSieben's "Jenke." (0.21 million, 4.9%) and Sat.1's "Celebrities Under Palm Trees" (0.17 million, 3.7%).

While "Under Different Circumstances" topped the overall ratings, it managed only 0.20 million viewers (4.6%) in the 14- to 49-year-old bracket. Kabel Eins's "Breathless – Dangerous Truth" held steady with 0.20 million (4.4%), while RTL II's "The Geissens" drew 0.17 million, achieving 4.4% and 3.5% shares.

Netflix:

Germany's daily Netflix film charts have seen their fourth different #1 in the past six days. After the series continuation "Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man", the thriller "The Little Things", and the Western "The Unholy Trinity", the teen horror film "Clown in a Cornfield" has now shot straight to the top—debuting at #1 from nowhere. "The Unholy Trinity" dropped from 1st to 2nd, while "The Little Things" fell from 2nd to 3rd.

Series See Little Movement—Except for a Few Shifts

Meanwhile, the series rankings remained largely unchanged, with only minor shifts starting from fourth place. The evergreen Bridgerton—now in its 214th day on Germany's Netflix charts—climbed back up two spots, from 10th to 8th. The top three stayed the same: the Norwegian crime series Harry Hole, based on Jo Nesbø's bestsellers; the horror series Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen from the Duffer brothers (Stranger Things); and the live-action adaptation of the manga One Piece.

Prime Video: A Static Top 10

Amazon's Prime Video saw no movement at all in its German charts, with all ten titles holding their positions from the previous day. The sci-fi thriller Mercy continues to lead, followed by the Sherlock Holmes prequel series Young Sherlock and the reality game show The 50.

Disney+: A Post-Apocalyptic Surge and Familiar Favorites

Disney+'s daily German charts saw a shake-up as the post-apocalyptic series Paradises—boosted by its season finale—leapt from 5th to 1st. The four series that had occupied the top spots on Monday (Scrubs' hospital comedy revival, the romantic drama Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, Marvel's Daredevil: Born Again, and the live-action Lucky Luke adaptation) each dropped one place to ranks 2 through 5.

In the film rankings, the animated blockbuster Zootopia 2 remains in first, ahead of the 20th Anniversary Special for the teen series Hannah Montana. The original Zootopia also gained ground, rising from 4th to 3rd.

Disney+ has since resolved the issues with its "Trending Now" list, which more accurately reflects the platform's most popular titles. Leading the list are the long-running medical drama Grey's Anatomy and the comedy staple Modern Family. Paradises jumped from 13th to 3rd, overtaking Zootopia 2 and the children's series Bluey. The new Scrubs season now sits at 14th (down from 7th), Daredevil: Born Again at 16th, and Lucky Luke at 30th.

YouTube: Football Dominates the Charts

The international football match didn't just top linear TV ratings—it also claimed the number-one spot in YouTube's charts. Highlights from ZDF's sportstudio fußball channel had already racked up 680,500 views by late evening and early morning, with more expected to follow. For comparison, Sportschau Fußball—the ARD channel covering the same match, which aired on Das Erste, not ZDF—had only 24,000 views by Tuesday morning. The sportstudio fußball channel has simply built a massive following.