Netflix releases another batch of viewing figures revealing 2023’s biggest hits
List included thousands of programmes
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Your support makes all the difference.Netflix has released its latest viewership figures with some surprising insights into its most-watched programming.
The numbers released on Thursday (23 May) detail the streaming service’s top films and TV series for the period of July to December 2023.
In a push to provide a wider picture of what audiences are enjoying, the list includes thousands of programmes along with their views, runtime and hours viewed, rather than just the top performers.
It comes as the streamer is poised to buy the most divisive film to air this year at the Cannes Film Festival, Emilia Pérez, a crime musical drama.
According to “What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report”, audiences watched 90 billion hours of content in the 6 month period, with 183 billion hours of watch time for the whole year.
The top movie title for the period was the apocalyptic film, Leave The World Behind, racking up over 121 million views and 286 million hours watched.
The film, an apocalyptic drama starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke and Kevin Bacon, was produced by Higher Ground Productions, the company founded by former US president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.
Adapted from the 2020 novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind follows a society that unravels after technological infrastructure, from phones to TVs, starts to collapse.
Also in the top 10 titles for the second half of the year were, Heart of Stone (109 million views), Leo (96 million), Nowhere (86 million), The Out-Laws (83 million), Hidden Strike (73 million), Reptile (73 million), The Killer (67 million), Family Switch (61 million), The Boss Baby (61 million), You Are So Not Invited to my Bat Mitzvah (60 million).
Meanwhile, Netflix’s top TV series was the first season of One Piece, which garnered over 71 million views and 546 million hours watched.
Eiichiro Oda created the original manga upon which both the One Piece anime and new Netflix series were based. The series follows a rag-tag pirate crew in pursuit of a lost treasure. Last year, the show broke records set by Wednesday and Stranger Things.
The top 10 series for the same period also included, Dear Child (52 million), Who is Erin Carter? (50 million), Lupin: Part 3 (49 million), The Witcher season three (47 million), Sex Education season four (46 million), Beckham (43 million), CocoMelon season eight (37 million), Virgin River season five (35 million), The Lincoln Lawyer season two (35 million), and Painkiller (34 million).
Non-English titles made up about a third of all viewing, demonstrating Netflix’s global impact.
The report also splits series by seasons, putting Netflix’s own original content at more of an advantage over longer-running series such as Suits which may generate a high viewership not showing as highly on the rankings. According to Deadline, all nine seasons of the popular legal drama racked up 146 million views collectively, surpassing Leave The World Behind.
Further details of the report can be found here, with the full list here.
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