Euphoria Season 3 Keeps the Crown as HBO’s No. 1 Streaming Series

Here’s something you don’t see every day: A Hollywood comeback that’s both huge at the box office and in the streaming charts—despite the internet ripping the latest season of the show to shreds. Yes, I’m talking about Sydney Sweeney, who after a few high-profile flops (we all saw those), now finds herself pretty much everywhere, shattering records and triggering takes from critics and fans alike.

Sweeney’s Big Movie Payday

Let’s start with the numbers. Sweeney’s thriller The Housemaid just became her biggest movie ever, pulling in a wild $401 million worldwide. No, that’s not a typo. It outperformed pretty much all her previous work by a mile. After some less-than-stellar recent outings, that’s what Hollywood executives like to call 'clutch.'

'Euphoria' Refuses to Die—But Not Everyone’s Thrilled

While theaters count the cash, Sydney’s TV life is just as busy. She’s back as Cassie Howard in Euphoria, which originally dropped on HBO back in 2019. If you were wondering, that’s the one with Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, and Hunter Schafer—basically, a factory for breakout stars.

The timeline looks like this:

• 2019: Euphoria Season 1 premieres, becomes a word-of-mouth rocket for HBO.
• 2022: Season 2 hits and ends up as HBO’s second-biggest show ever. Only Game of Thrones beat it, until House of the Dragon came along. (Yes, HBO viewers love their chaos.)
• 2024: Season 3 finally arrives on April 12—after a massive four-year gap that basically feels like an eternity in TV time.

And against all logic, the show has been dominating streaming ever since the latest season showed up. In the U.S., Euphoria held onto that top spot week after week, with the only hiccup being the finale of The Pitt Season 2 on April 16, which briefly nudged it aside. Even hotshot new arrivals like Rooster have had to settle for second place. Clearly, there’s still an audience hungry for glitter, melodrama, and questionable life choices.

But Critics (and Viewers) Aren’t Exactly Cheering

So, with all that success, you’d expect universal acclaim, right? Not even close. Season 3 of Euphoria is getting, frankly, roasted by critics. Its Rotten Tomatoes score sits at a bleak 40%. Here’s what some folks are saying:

'The problem with the series' return four years after its sophomore season is how drastically the world and the show's original fans have changed, and how little Euphoria has grown in response.'

Translation: The show spent too long on ice, the world moved on, but nobody updated the script or the vibes to match.

Another review went so far as to call the new episodes “a humiliation ritual”—which, honestly, is a level of shade reserved for the true disappointments.

The fan reaction isn’t much better: Viewers tossed it a measly 43% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s pretty rough for a series with this kind of cultural hype.

Sydney Sweeney: Not Slowing Down

If you think Sweeney’s about to coast on the back of The Housemaid and a polarizing season of Euphoria, think again. She’s currently booked and busy with three different projects coming up:

• Gundam: Sweeney’s filming the much-anticipated adaptation of the classic Mobile Suit Gundam anime. Expect big, stompy robots and military drama—something totally new for her.
• The Custom of the County: This one’s a dark comedy, pulling from Edith Wharton’s 1913 novel. It’s not exactly Sweeney’s usual territory, but she loves swinging for the fences.
• The Housemaid’s Secret: Because when your thriller makes $401 million, you absolutely bring it back for a sequel. Sweeney is set to return as Millie Calloway, with a theatrical release tentatively scheduled for December 17, 2027. You can practically hear Hollywood’s cash registers warming up already.

Bottom line: Even if Euphoria is stumbling creatively, Sweeney’s career is firing on all cylinders. Don’t be surprised if she ends up everywhere for the next few years—good, bad, or just plain weird.