Entertainment
Leave the world behind, one piece
The dystopian thriller ‘Leave the World Behind’ was the most-watched film (and title overall) globally on Netflix in the second half of 2023, while on the TV side, the anime-inspired live-action series ‘One Piece’ led played.
The data comes from Netflix’s second edition of ‘What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report’, which reflects viewership on the streamer from July-December 2023, accounting for 99% of all Netflix viewing. Subscribers around the world watched approximately 90 billion hours of Netflix in the second half of 2023, compared to 93 billion hours in the first half of the year.
Netflix released its first big data dump last December, covering the first half of 2023. In the second report, released Thursday, the company added runtime and views (the total number of hours watched divided by the runtime) and individual movies and TV shows, syncing them with the weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists .
‘Leave the World Behind,’ Netflix’s fifth most popular movie of all time, generated 121 million views in just over three weeks after premiering on December 8, 2023. From executive producers Barack and Michelle Obama, the film stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali and Myha’la Herrol. “Heart of Stone,” an action thriller starring Gal Gadot, was viewed nearly 110 million times in the second half of 2023.
Adam Sandler’s “Leo,” the streamer’s biggest animated film to date, was viewed 96 million times after its Nov. 11 release. “Nowhere,” Netflix’s third most popular foreign-language film ever, was viewed 86 million times.
Among TV series, “One Piece,” with nearly 72 million views, more than doubled Netflix’s anime movies and series. That was followed by a limited series “Who Is Erin Carter?” (50.1 million), “Lupine” Part 3 (49.7 million), “The Witcher” Season 3 (47.9 million) and “Sex Education” Season 4 (46.3 million).
Licensed titles also remained popular on Netflix. ‘Suits’ alone had 144 million views over nine seasons in the second half of 2023, followed by ‘Young Sheldon’ (88 million views), ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ (51 million), ‘Gossip Girl’ (49 million) and “Gilmore Girls” (45 million).
The full spreadsheet with Netflix viewing figures from July to December 2023 – with 6,599 series seasons and 9,395 films – is available at this link. Other highlights from the report:
- Netflix’s three biggest titles of all time – “Wednesday,” “Red Notice” and “Squid Game” – continued to draw large audiences long after their debut. For the full year 2023, “Wednesday” had 98 million total views, “Red Notice” 62 million and “Squid Game” 25 million.
- The first three installments of Netflix’s “Lupine” generated nearly 100 million views in the second half of 2023, and there were nearly 200 million views over the eight seasons of the “CoComelon” children’s show. Also popular (including all seasons) were “The Witcher” (76 million), “Virgin River” (69 million), “The Crown” (50 million), “Sweet Magnolias” (35 million), “Top Boy” (26 million). million), “Heartstopper” (24 million), “Sintonia” (20 million) and “Sweet Home” (17 million).
- Non-English series and films make up almost a third of all viewing figures on Netflix. Korean (9% of ratings), Spanish (7%), and Japanese (5%) language stories captured the majority of the ratings outside of English. Notables mentioned by Netflix include ‘Dear Child’ (53 million views) from Germany, ‘Forgotten Love’ (43 million) from Poland, ‘Pact of Silence’ (21 million) from Mexico, ‘Mask Girl’ (19 million ) from Korea, “Yu Yu Hakusho” (17 million) from Japan, “Berlin” (11 million) from Spain and “The Railway Men” (11 million) from India.
- Sports has become an increasingly popular category, with a total of 184 million views in the second half of 2023, including ‘Beckham’ (44 million views), ‘Untold: Johnny Football’ (14 million) and ‘Quarterback’ (13 million) .
- Kids and family represented 15% of all ratings, with titles like “Gabby’s Dollhouse” (90 million), “Family Switch” (62 million) and “The Monkey King” (43 million).
Here are the 15 best TV titles streaming on Netflix, ranked by views for the second half of 2023:
| Title | Date of publication | Total hours viewed | Total running time (hours) | Number of views |
| One piece season 1 | 08/31/2023 | 541,900,000 | 7:34 | 71,600,000 |
| Best Child: Limited Series // Liebes Type: Miniseries | 07-09-2023 | 252,800,000 | 4:49 | 52,500,000 |
| Who is Erin Carter?: Limited Series | 24-08-2023 | 286,200,000 | 5:43 | 50,100,000 |
| Lupine: part 3 | 05-10-2023 | 274,300,000 | 5:31 | 49,700,000 |
| The Witcher: Season 3 | 29-06-2023 | 363,800,000 | 7:36 | 47,900,000 |
| Sex Education: Season 4 | 21-09-2023 | 374,700,000 | 8:06 | 46,300,000 |
| Beckham: Limited Series | 04-10-2023 | 208,500,000 | 4:45 | 43,900,000 |
| CoComelon: Season 8 | 10-04-2023 | 40,100,000 | 1:04 | 37,600,000 |
| Virgin River: Season 5 | 07-09-2023 | 331,400,000 | 9:16 | 35,800,000 |
| The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 2 | 06-07-2023 | 292,300,000 | 8:11 | 35,700,000 |
| Painkiller: limited series | 10-08-2023 | 171,400,000 | 4:59 | 34,400,000 |
| All the Light We Can’t See: Limited Series | 02-11-2023 | 129,900,000 | 3:50 | 33,900,000 |
| My Life with the Walter Boys: Season 1 | 07-12-2023 | 254,300,000 | 7:37 | 33,400,000 |
| King the country: limited | 06/17/2023 | 630,200,000 | 7:00 PM | 33,200,000 |
| Squid Game: The Challenge: Season 1 | 22-11-2023 | 270,600,000 | 8:10 | 33,100,000 |
And these are the top 15 movies on Netflix for the second half of 2023:
| Title | Date of publication | Total hours viewed | Total running time (hours) | Number of views |
| Leaving the world behind | 08-12-2023 | 286,300,000 | 2:22 | 121,000,000 |
| Heart of stone | 11-08-2023 | 228,400,000 | 2:05 | 109,600,000 |
| Lion | 21-11-2023 | 171,200,000 | 1:47 | 96,000,000 |
| Nowhere | 29-09-2023 | 156,600,000 | 1:49 | 86,200,000 |
| The outer laws | 07-07-2023 | 135,500,000 | 1:37 | 83,800,000 |
| Hidden battle | 125,900,000 | 1:43 | 73,300,000 | |
| Reptile | 29-09-2023 | 165,600,000 | 2:16 | 73,100,000 |
| The murderer | 10-11-2023 | 135,600,000 | 2:00 am | 67,800,000 |
| Family switch | 11/30/2023 | 109,400,000 | 1:46 | 61,900,000 |
| The boss baby | 100,700,000 | 1:38 | 61,700,000 | |
| So you’re not invited to my Bat Mitzvah | 25-08-2023 | 105,100,000 | 1:44 | 60,600,000 |
| Paw Patrol: The Movie | 84,500,000 | 1:26 | 59,000,000 | |
| Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire | 21-12-2023 | 131,100,000 | 2:16 | 57,800,000 |
| Extraction 2 | 06/16/2023 | 111,900,000 | 2:04 | 54,100,000 |
| Love at first sight | 15-09-2023 | 78,800,000 | 1:31 | 52,000,000 |
| Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir, the movie | 28-07-2023 | 84,500,000 | 1:42 | 49,700,000 |
