4 weeks ago
EXCLUSIVE: The Traitors has been revealed arsenic comfortably nan top-selling caller format of nan 2020s.
Analyst K7 has crunched nan numbers for its latest Tracking nan Unscripted Giants study and pinch astir 50 adaptations, nan smash deed show successful which traitors hunt down faithfuls came retired connected apical for formats created this decade.
In fact, pinch 47 adaptations, The Traitors makes up much than 1 5th (20.8%) of caller format launches astir nan world since nan commencement of nan decade.
Audiences worldwide are by now acquainted pinch nan conceit of a show that has astir notably been adapted successful nan U.S. pinch Alan Cumming and successful nan UK pinch Claudia Winkleman. The second conscionable moved into nan personage spin-off crippled and rolled retired a star-studded Season 2 line-up over nan play including Bella Ramsey, Myha’la and Michael Sheen.
The formats hotbed of The Netherlands, wherever The Traitors originated, came retired good from K7’s decade-topping database – nan first clip specified information has been compiled – pinch The Floor from Talpa Studios coming 2nd astatine 32 adaptations since 2020. Hosted by Rob Lowe, that 1 airs connected Fox successful nan U.S.
Third connected nan database was an intriguing French format, The A Talks, titled The Assembly in astir English-speaking territories, successful which celebrated faces for illustration Stephen Fry, Antonio Banderas and Emmanuel Macron are grilled by autistic, neurodivergent and/or learning abnormal interviewers.
The apical 3 were good clear of nan rest, pinch 2 UK formats, The 1% Club and Sort Your Life Out, coming successful 4th and 5th pinch 18 and 12 post-2020 adaptations respectively.
If 2025 is taken connected its own, The Floor topped nan list, pinch 12 caller launches versus The Traitors‘ eight, but nan latter’s longevity crossed nan decade is unsurprising fixed really it has dominated nan zeitgeist for years now. Looking ahead, The Traitors has 16 caller versions confirmed for 2026, doubling nan 8 presently successful The Floor‘s pipeline.
The K7 study noted really The Traitors has a little concentrated world scope than The Floor, with 64% of its versions coming successful Europe but nan remaining 36% distributed crossed each awesome world bloc. The Floor, on nan different hand, has half nan “proportional intercontinental footprint.” The Traitors has besides had much occurrence pinch streamers than The Floor, K7 said.
The Traitors’ distributor All3Media International is astir to merge with Banijay, pinch nan K7 study revealing nan brace mixed will inhabit astir 30% of nan formats market, bringing together shows including MasterChef, Survivor, Lego Masters and Race Across nan World. Banijay’s income limb occupied 22% of nan caller motorboat marketplace past year, an awesome feat fixed that “no Banijay Entertainment format appears successful this year’s apical 5 astir launched titles successful 2025, yet it wins nan supplier class by nan widest margin,” according to K7. Despite nan success, layoffs crossed some income teams are anticipated erstwhile Banijay-All3 completes.
Big twelvemonth for YouTube formats
One Banijay format that has landed occurrence is different Dutch one, Let’s Play Ball, which emerged connected YouTube.
K7 said shows for illustration Let’s Play Ball contributed to a immense upswing successful formats ordered specifically for nan Google-owned behemoth.
Of much than 150 progressive format adaptations connected streaming platforms submitted to K7, 4.6% had YouTube arsenic their destination. That proportionality is small, but nan trajectory is notable. In 2024, K7 recorded conscionable one. K7 cited different examples including spin-offs for illustration Banijay’s MasterChef Creators and Sony Pictures Television’s integer type of Jeopardy!.
K7 said nan “implications” of YouTube’s upward trajectory are opening to play retired successful 2 directions, 1 being for format execs to usage YouTube for existing franchises and nan different being caller digital-native formats that find audiences connected YouTube and past displacement to accepted players.
“The era of audiences sitting successful beforehand of a tv astatine a scheduled time, waiting to beryllium told what to watch, is agelong past,” K7 wrote. “For format owners, YouTube offers thing qualitatively different from some linear tv and subscription streaming: an open, algorithmically distributed level wherever assemblage attraction tin beryllium tested successful existent time, without nan commissioning gatekeepers and accumulation timelines that accepted broadcasting requires.”
