What We Watched the Second Half of 2023

Today we published our second edition of What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report, capturing Netflix viewership from July to December 2023. This report covers 99% of all viewing on Netflix.

Since introducing our first report, we've made important improvements - adding runtime and views (total hours viewed divided by runtime) and separating films and series. This mirrors our weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists. Over 85% of new Netflix titles in this report also appeared on our weekly Top 10 lists.

This report shows:

The staying power of Netflix stories: We're building stories that last across almost every genre - with older seasons continuing to delight audiences, especially when a new season premieres:

The first three parts of Lupin generated nearly 100M views in the second half of 2023, with nearly 200M views across Cocomelon's eight seasons.

The Witcher (76M), Virgin River (69M), The Crown (50M), Sweet Magnolias (35M), Top Boy (26M), Heartstopper (24M), Sintonia (20M), and Sweet Home (17M) were all loved by fans too.

In addition, the report shows:

Fan favorites like Wednesday (98M), Red Notice (62M), and Squid Game (25M) - our three biggest titles of all time - continued to bring in millions of views in 20231, long after they premiered on Netflix;

New adaptations drive significant viewership of past series:

One Piece (72M), our live-action TV show, more than doubled viewing of the anime film and series; and

Reality competition spin-off Squid Game: The Challenge (33M) increased viewership for Squid Game by 34% - three years after this much loved story had its premiere.

The strength of Netflix's storytelling all around the world: Our non-English shows and movies are very popular with audiences - making up nearly a third of all viewing.

Korean (9% of viewing), Spanish (7%) and Japanese (5%) language stories captured the biggest share of viewing outside of English.

Stand-outs include Dear Child (53M) from Germany, Forgotten Love (43M) from Poland, Pact of Silence (21M) from Mexico, Mask Girl (19M) from Korea, Yu Yu Hakusho (17M) from Japan, Berlin (11M) from Spain, and The Railway Men (11M) from India.

The size of Netflix's audience, and the depth of their engagement: People watched 90 billion hours of Netflix in the second half of 2023 (and 183B in all of 2023). The report shows the size of our audience across genres and for our films.

Leave the World Behind (our #5 most popular movie of all time) generated 121M views and Leo (our biggest animated film to date) 96M views - despite both premiering late in the second half. And Nowhere (our third most popular non-English language film ever) garnered 86M views.

The variety and diversity of tastes Netflix serves: Our most watched titles came from a variety of genres, from drama and kids to comedy, action and more.

Sports has become increasingly popular, amassing a combined 184M views with favorites like BECKHAM (44M), Untold: Johnny Football (14M) and Quarterback (13M).

Reality TV shows like Is It Cake? (21M), Love is Blind (20M) and The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On (12M) are widely watched and talked about, alongside docuseries like World War II: From the Frontlines (13M).

Kids and family represented 15% of all viewing, with titles like Gabby's Dollhouse (90M), Family Switch (62M), and The Monkey King (43M).

Licensed titles also continue to be wildly popular across genres with series like Young Sheldon which generated 88M views, Grey's Anatomy (51M), Gossip Girl (49M) and Gilmore Girls (45M). Suits alone had 144M views across nine seasons in the second half of 2023.

This report, combined with our weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists, continues to give creators and our industry better insights into what resonates with our audiences around the world. Download our report here.

1 Based on our first half and second half of 2023 reports.