The past two weeks has seen a massive push towards physicial isolation across Europe and North America, forcing billions of kids to be kept home from school. And while schooling continues for many, there’s also been a spike in home viewership. What’s topping kids’ viewing lists? LA-based Parrot Analytics has found that PAW Patrol is dominating screens in Europe, while SpongeBob SquarePants is most popular across North America.
According to UNESCO, 87% of the world’s children are out of school right now with nationwide closures in more than 160 countries. And kids TV channels are seeing a spike in viewing according to Nielsen—some as high as 58% in the US.
How does that translate to online? Parrot Analytics measured social media interactions, social video views, online research and piracy numbers using a weighted algorithm, to determine demand for the average show (demand being how frequently it’s talked about online or pirated.)
Between March 11 and 23 in Europe, the number one most in-demand show was PAW Patrol (22.35 time more demand than the average show), followed by Peppa Pig (21.27 times), SpongeBob SquarePants (15.15 times), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (pictured, 14.57 times), Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir (13.98 times), Masha and the Bear (12.53 times), Gravity Falls (10.32 times), Steven Universe (10.11 times), My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (9.67 times) and PJ Masks (6.59 times).
Meanwhile, in North America, SpongeBob SquarePants still reigns supreme, like it did for the first three months of the year, at 88.43 times greater demand than the average show. While the top-10 shared some similarities with Europe, such as Steven Universe (60.68 times) and Star Wars: The Clone Wars (54.09 time), it also featured a lot of anime, including Dragon Ball Z at number four (40.97 times), while Europe had no shows featuring the Japanese art-style in its top-10 list. Other anime titles on the list included Pokémon (35.46 times) at number six, Avatar: The Last Airbender (30.78 times) at number nine and Naruto: Shippuden (29.71x) at ten.
The rest of the North American top-10 was rounded out by PAW Patrol (35.5 times), Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir (33.52 times), Sesame Street (31.87 times).