Best Documentaries on Netflix 2022: Netflix released over 56 original documentaries and docu-series in 2022. Some were good. A handful were genuinely unmissable. The five on this list pulled in tens of millions of viewers, sparked real conversations, and reminded people why a well-told true story hits harder than any fiction.
1. The Tinder Swindler
- Genre: True Crime
- Released: January 2, 2022
- Hours Viewed: 172 million in the first 5 weeks
- Director: Felicity Morris
The Tinder Swindler is the most watched documentary Netflix released in all of 2022. It is not hard to see why.
The film follows Simon Leviev, an Israeli con artist who posed as the son of a diamond billionaire on Tinder. He romanced women across Europe, built their trust, and then convinced them to lend him enormous sums of money by claiming his life was in danger. By the time each woman realised what had happened, he was already doing the same thing to someone else.
Three of his victims went on camera. They told their stories with honesty and courage. They even tracked him down themselves after the police failed to act. The documentary turned into a global conversation about online dating, manipulation, and how easily trust can be exploited.
2. Formula 1: Drive to Survive (Season 4)
- Genre: Sports Documentary
- Released: March 11, 2022
- Hours Viewed: 57 million in two weeks
- Production: Box to Box Films
Formula 1 was not always a mainstream obsession. Drive to Survive changed that. Season 4 arrived in March 2022 and it was the second most watched documentary on Netflix that year by top 10 points.
The series goes behind the scenes of a full Formula 1 season. It sits inside team garages, follows drivers through their lowest moments, and captures the politics and drama that race fans never usually see. Season 4 covered the 2021 season, including the infamous Abu Dhabi finale between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. That alone was enough to keep millions of people glued to every episode.
The show turned casual viewers into full Formula 1 fans. Attendance at U.S. races grew significantly after it launched, something the sport had been trying to achieve for decades.
3. Worst Roommate Ever
- Genre: True Crime / Docu-Series
- Released: March 1, 2022
- Hours Viewed: 78.67 million in two weeks
- Production: Blumhouse Television
Five episodes. Five nightmare stories. Worst Roommate Ever was a Blumhouse Television production that turned the everyday fear of living with a stranger into genuinely disturbing television.
Each episode told a real story about a person who moved into someone’s home and made their life hell. Some cases involved manipulation and fraud. Others involved violence. All of them were based on documented real events. The production values were sharp, the storytelling was tight, and the cases were disturbing enough to make you reconsider ever answering a flatmate ad again.
It pulled in nearly 79 million viewing hours in its first two weeks on the platform. That number placed it third in the 2022 Netflix documentary charts by total viewership.
4. Our Father
- Genre: True Crime
- Released: May 11, 2022
- Hours Viewed: 42.6 million in three weeks
- Director: Lucie Jourdan
Our Father is one of the most disturbing documentaries Netflix has ever released. The story centres on Dr. Donald Cline, a fertility doctor in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Women who came to him for fertility treatment discovered years later through DNA testing that he had used his own sperm to inseminate them without their knowledge or consent. One woman found 94 half-siblings through the same discovery. The number kept climbing as more people took DNA tests and found each other.
The documentary follows the women who uncovered the truth and the legal battles that followed. What makes it so powerful is the sheer scale of what Cline did and how little consequence he initially faced for it.
5. Girl in the Picture
- Genre: True Crime
- Released: June 29, 2022
- Director: Skye Borgman
Girl in the Picture is the kind of documentary that stays with you long after you finish watching it.
It begins with a young woman found dying on a roadside in 1990. She had no ID. Nobody came forward to claim her. She died shortly after. The investigation into who she was uncovered a story of abuse, manipulation, and a false identity that stretched back years.
Director Skye Borgman peeled back the layers of the case one by one. Every answer revealed a darker question underneath it. Critics and audiences both rated it highly. It was one of the most talked-about documentary releases of the entire year on social media and in press reviews.
