"Big City Greens" Ranks Among Nielsens Most Watched Animated Series of the Year

A new report from Nielsen shows that Disney Channel's hit series, Big City Greens, has cracked the top 15 most viewed animated series of the year.

What's Happening:

• To celebrate International Animation Day (October 28), Nielsen put out a special report, "Drawn to Watch: Animation's Hit Makers."
• As part of this report, Nielsen - a market research group best known for collecting data and tracking what people watch on television and other media - took a look at the most-watched animated shows of the 2025-26 season, the majority of which came from streaming.
• Cracking the top 15 is the hit Disney Channel animated series, Big City Greens, taking the #9 spot for the which clocks in at 22.5 billion minutes watched (across linear and streaming) between 2025 and 2026.
• Created by Chris and Shane Houghton, Big City Greens is an animated comedy-adventure series which follows the offbeat adventures of 10-year-old Cricket Green, a mischievous and optimistic country boy who moves to the big city with his wildly out of place family – older sister Tilly, father Bill and Gramma Alice. Cricket’s natural curiosity and enthusiasm lead him and his family on epic journeys and into the hearts of his new neighbors.
• The Emmy-nominated show, now in its fifth season, has surpassed 100 episodes and is the longest continuously-running animated series on Disney Channel.
• Big City Greens also joins (and in some cases, outranks) other animated series under the Disney umbrella, including Futurama, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (and Clubhouse+), Marvel's Spidey and His Amazing Friends, American Dad!, Bob's Burgers, Family Guy, and The Simpsons.

Creator Ratings:

• Nielsen also shine a light on the creators behind a number of these series, pointing out that Chris and Shane Houghton (creators of Big City Greens) are part of a newer class of creators accounting for the large swath of minutes watched in animation.
• While the report showcases the different eras by creator, mentioning a "classic class" of creators like Matt Groening (The Simpsons, Futurama), Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park), Stephen Hillenburg (SpongeBob SquarePants), and Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy, American Dad!) that made this writer fade into dust, they credit the Houghton brothers alongside Joe Brumm (Bluey), Loren Bouchard (Bob's Burgers) and others who are already adding up their creations into over 185 billion minutes viewed across a new generation of viewers.
• In 2024, Disney announced an agreement that expanded the opportunities for the Houghtons beyond Big City Greens. The most intriguing part of the bargain was that the deal also allows the pair to develop adult animated projects at the Disney-Owned 20th Television Animation, putting them potentially in line with series like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bob's Burgers.
• Big City Greens has also expanded into a full-length film, Big City Greens the Movie: Spacecation! back in 2024. At the premiere of that film, Executive Vice President of Disney TV Animation Meredith Roberts hinted that a spin-off of the hit series was something that was being explored.