“Leave The World Behind” Tops Netflix Viewing Charts

The most-watched movie on Netflix worldwide in the second half of 2023 was the dystopian thriller “Leave the World Behind,” while the most-watched TV show was the anime-inspired live action series “One Piece.”

The data is taken from Netflix’s second edition of “What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report,” which covers 99% of all Netflix viewing from July to December 2023. In the second half of 2023, Netflix users worldwide viewed approximately 90 billion hours, up from 93 billion hours in the first half of the same year.

In December of last year, Netflix made available a massive data dump that covered the first half of 2023. In order to align the second report with its weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists, the company split films and TV shows and included runtime and views (total hours viewed divided by runtime). The report was released on Thursday.

“Leave the World Behind,” which debuted on December 8, 2023, and became Netflix’s fifth most popular film ever, amassed 121 million views in less than three weeks. Starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, and Myha’la Herrold, the film is produced by EsmailCorp and Red Om Films and serves as an executive production from Higher Ground’s Barack and Michelle Obama. In the second half of 2023, Gal Gadot’s action-thriller “Heart of Stone” received close to 110 million views.

After its debut on November 11, Adam Sandler’s “Leo,” his largest animated picture to date, had 96 million views on the platform. With 86 million views, “Nowhere” also became Netflix’s third most popular non-English film ever.

With almost 72 million views, the TV show “One Piece” more than doubled Netflix’s anime film and series viewing. The limited series “Lupin” Part 3 (49.7 million), “Who Is Erin Carter?” (50.1 million), “The Witcher” Season 3 (47.9 million), and “Sex Education” Season 4 (46.3 million) came next.

Additionally, three years after the Korean original series “Squid Game” debuted, Netflix’s data shows that the reality competition spin-off “Squid Game: The Challenge” (33 million views in the second half of 2023) increased viewership for the latter by 34%.

On Netflix, licensed titles remained well-liked as well. In the second half of 2023, “Suits” garnered 144 million views over nine seasons. Next in line were “Young Sheldon” with 88 million views, “Grey’s Anatomy” with 51 million, “Gossip Girl” with 49 million, and “Gilmore Girls” with 45 million.

Source: variety.com