Most Popular Documentaries on Netflix in 2024!

Welcome back to another look at what dominated the Netflix top 10s throughout 2024. Today, we’re looking into unscripted content specifically all those documentaries and docu-series that Netflix subscribers couldn’t get enough of throughout the last year.  

This list is compiled with help from the team at FlixPatrol, which captures the daily Netflix top 10s in over 90 countries and assigns points to each featured title. This list then tots all those numbers, allowing us to see the most popular titles. Of course, this list doesn’t necessarily tell us what the most watched titles of the year were; we’ll only be able to find that out when the second Engagement Report for 2024 drops.

There are a few big takeaways from these two lists for me. Number 1: At least on Netflix, crime continues to pay. Most of these lists are made up of crime documentaries, and those involving young women typically perform even better. Historical documentaries also had a good 2024 showing, with titles high up in both respective lists, particularly when they involve scripted elements. What’s particularly surprising, given the amount of investment Netflix continues to put in, is how low down various sports documentaries perform on Netflix, with a few exceptions that revolve around big-name talent. It also wasn’t a particularly strong year for nature documentaries either.

Most Popular Documentaries on Netflix Globally in 2024:

1. What Jennifer Did (8,346 points)
2. The Menendez Brothers (5,834 points)
3. Einstein and the Bomb (4,254 points)
4. Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare (4,211 points)
5. The Lost Children (3,799 points)
6. Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut (3,337 points)
7. The Greatest Night in Pop (3,317 points)
8. Secrets of the Neanderthals (2,830 points)
9. Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy (2,396 points)
10. Jailbreak: Love on the Run (1,861 points)
11. Mysteries of the Terracotta Warriors (1,649 points)
12. Martha (1,557 points)
13. Bitconned (1,529 points)
14. Inside the Mind of a Dog (1,139 points)
15. Untold: The Murder of Air McNair (1,080 points)
16. How to Rob a Bank (821 points)
17. The Final: Attack on Wembley (767 points)
18. An Invisible Victim: The Eliza Samudio Case (718 points)
19. 500 Days of Escobar (716 points)
20. Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley (682 points)
21. The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (491 points)
22. Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case (409 points)
23. Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairy Tale (405 points)
24. Skywalkers: A Love Story (388 points)
25. Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare (330 points)
26. You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolf Pack (305 points)
27. The Lie (287 points)
28. The Accidental Twins (274 points)
29. Man on the Run (265 points)
30. Apollo 13: Survival (262 points)
31. Three Identical Strangers (248 points)
32. Yo Yo Honey Singh: Famous (240 points)
33. María Soledad: El fin del silencio (234 points)
34. Will & Harper (218 points)
35. The Footballer, His Wife & The Crash (216 points)
36. The Doomsday Cult of Antares de la Luz (210 points)
37. Car Crash: Who’s Lying? (203 points)
38. Jurnal Risa by Risa Saraswati (179 points)
39. Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa (138 points)
40. The Sidemen Story (126 points)
41. Tell Them You Love Me (108 points)
42. To Kill a Tiger (107 points)
43. Yaremchuk: Matchless World of Beauty (102 points)
44. The Football Fraudster (99 points)
45. Hate to Love: Nickelback (86 points)
46. Untold: Sign Stealer (84 points)
47. The Guardian of the Monarchs (80 points)
48. Mister Organ (75 points)
49. Biggest Heist Ever (74 points)
50. Open Heart (72 points)

Most Popular Documentary Series on Netflix Globally in 2024:

1. American Nightmare (12,106 points)
2. Testament: The Story of Moses (11,358 points)
3. American Murder: Laci Peterson (9,785 points)
4. Simone Biles Rising (9,346 points)
5. Worst Ex Ever (7,645 points)
6. Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal (7,240 points)
7. Homicide (7,211 points)
8. Alexander: The Making of a God (7,014 points)
9. The Man with 1000 Kids (6,844 points)
10. Worst Roommate Ever (6,228 points)
11. This Is the Zodiac Speaking (5,622 points)
12. Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult (5,233 points)
13. You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment (4,866 points)
14. Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey (4,805 points)
15. Formula 1: Drive to Survive (4,346 points)
16. Unsolved Mysteries (4,210 points)
17. Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam (3,834 points)
18. Can I Tell You a Secret? (3,515 points)
19. Countdown: Paul vs. Tyson (3,484 points)
20. Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (3,438 points)
21. Captains of the World (3,429 points)
22. Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial (3,128 points)
23. America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (3,105 points)
24. Our Living World (2,358 points)
25. Cooking Up Murder: Uncovering the Story of César Román (2,299 points)
26. Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War (2,275 points)
27. Mr. McMahon (2,266 points)
28. The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping (2,178 points)
29. The Yara Gambirasio Case: Beyond Reasonable Doubt (1,853 points)
30. SPRINT (1,827 points)
31. Files of the Unexplained (1,817 points)
32. The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth (1,589 points)
33. Love on the Spectrum (1,461 points)
34. Raël: The Alien Prophet (1,395 points)
35. Together: Treble Winners (1,348 points)
36. It’s Ok (1,321 points)
37. The Manhattan Alien Abduction (1,268 points)
38. American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders (1,176 points)
39. Ancient Apocalypse (1,167 points)
40. The Outreau Case: A French Nightmare (1,146 points)
41. 900 Days Without Annabel (1,106 points)
42. Ángel Di María: Breaking Down the Wall (1,094 points)
43. Investigation Alien (1,051 points)
44. Crime Scene Berlin: Nightlife Killer (1,031 points)
45. El portal: La historia oculta de Zona Divas (989 points)
46. Churchill at War (969 points)
47. Tour de France: Unchained (934 points)
48. Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War (886 points)
49. Kaulitz & Kaulitz (864 points)
50. Toughest Forces on Earth (808 points)

What was your favorite new documentary or docu-series released on Netflix in 2024? Let us know in the comments down below.