The 15 Best International Shows on Streaming in 2025

Non-English television has exploded on streaming platforms. What used to require specialty DVD imports or niche streaming services is now front and center on Netflix, Max, Apple TV Plus, and Amazon Prime Video. More than 80% of Netflix subscribers worldwide have watched at least one Korean show, and international series regularly dominate the platform’s global top 10. Here are the 15 best non-English shows you can stream right now.

How We Selected: We examined options using full-season viewing, critical analysis, and production quality assessment. Factors in our assessment included acting performances, rewatch value, thematic depth, production values. Brands featured did not pay for or influence their inclusion.

The Must-Watch Tier

1. Squid Game (Netflix, South Korea) remains the most-watched television series in Netflix history. The deadly competition drama returned for Season 2 in late 2024, logging 840 million viewing hours in 2025 alone. Season 3 debuted in mid-2025 with 370 million viewing hours in its first week, ranking number one in 93 countries. Lee Jung-jae’s performance as Gi-hun anchors a show that uses extreme violence to make pointed commentary about economic desperation.

2. Adolescence (Netflix, UK) became the highest-rated streaming title of 2025. Written by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, the series follows a family whose lives shatter when their 13-year-old son is arrested for killing a classmate. The series explores toxic masculinity, online radicalization, and the failures of social media platforms with unflinching honesty. The opening episode drew 13.2 million viewers in its first 28 days.

3. Dark (Netflix, Germany) is the best science fiction series on any streaming platform. Four interconnected families in a small German town discover a wormhole that connects past, present, and future across multiple timelines. The show ran for three meticulously plotted seasons and stuck its ending perfectly. Watch with subtitles, not the dub.

4. When Life Gives You Tangerines (Netflix, South Korea) was a 2025 breakout starring IU and Park Bo-gum. The series traces intimate family stories against the backdrop of Korea’s modern history from the 1950s onward, remaining in the global top 10 non-English series for eight consecutive weeks.

5. Money Heist (Netflix, Spain) put Spanish-language television on the global map. The Professor recruits a team of specialists for an impossibly ambitious robbery of the Royal Mint of Spain, and the resulting five-season thriller became Netflix’s most-watched non-English series before Squid Game claimed the crown.

Critically Acclaimed Picks

6. Borgen (Netflix, Denmark) follows Birgitte Nyborg as she becomes Denmark’s first female prime minister. The political drama combines the machinations of House of Cards with the emotional intelligence of The West Wing, and Sidse Babett Knudsen’s lead performance is extraordinary across four seasons.

7. Medusa (Netflix, Turkey) captured the number one position on Netflix’s global chart in early 2025, outperforming all other international offerings during its debut week. Turkish dramas have become a growing force on the platform, and Medusa represents the genre at its most commercially potent.

8. Secrets We Keep (Netflix, Denmark) is a crime thriller following an affluent family whose Filipino au pair goes missing. The series explores classism, racism, and privilege through a tightly constructed mystery that reveals uncomfortable truths about its characters with each episode.

9. Lupin (Netflix, France) stars Omar Sy as a gentleman thief inspired by the classic French literary character Arsene Lupin. The show is slick, fun, and gave Netflix its first French-language global hit. Sy’s charisma carries even the weaker episodes.

10. The First Frost (Netflix, China) became the highest-ranking Chinese drama on Netflix’s daily chart, marking a significant moment for Chinese content on Western streaming platforms.

Hidden Gems

11. Babylon Berlin (Various, Germany) is a lavish period thriller set in Weimar-era Berlin during the 1920s. The production values rival any prestige American drama, and the portrayal of a society teetering on the edge of fascism feels urgently relevant.

12. Katla (Netflix, Iceland) combines geological disaster with supernatural mystery when a subglacial volcano erupts and people thought to be dead start appearing in a small Icelandic town. The atmosphere is unlike anything else on streaming.

13. Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories (Netflix, Japan) is a quiet gem about a late-night restaurant in Tokyo where the chef will make any dish a customer requests. Each episode tells a self-contained story about the diners, and the show is warm, melancholy, and deeply human.

14. Pachinko (Apple TV Plus, South Korea/Japan) adapts Min Jin Lee’s beloved novel about four generations of a Korean family spanning from the 1910s to the 1980s. Lee Min-ho and Youn Yuh-jung lead a cast that performs in Korean, Japanese, and English. The cinematography is gorgeous, and the multigenerational scope gives the show an emotional weight that few series achieve.

15. Love Is Blind: Habibi (Netflix, UAE) is an Arabic adaptation of the dating show, filmed in Dubai. While reality television might seem like an odd inclusion, the series offers a fascinating window into dating culture in the Gulf region and became one of the platform’s most-discussed international releases.

How to Start

If you have never watched non-English television, start with Squid Game for immediate impact, then move to Money Heist for something lighter, and try Dark when you are ready for something that demands your full attention. For more on the Korean content revolution, read our feature on how the Hallyu wave conquered streaming and check our best Korean dramas on Netflix guide.