Leave the World Behind, One Piece top Netflix’s most-watched list for second half of 2023

By Dan Girolamo Published May 23, 2024

Mahershala Ali, Myha'la, Ethan Hawke, and Julia Roberts stand together in Leave the World Behind. — Jojo Whilden / Netflix

To be more transparent about viewership, Netflix released the second edition of What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report. The study, which covered 99% of all viewing on Netflix, revealed the most-watched movies and TV shows from July to December 2023.

According to the study, the most popular movie on Netflix in the second half of 2023 was Leave the World Behind, the streamer’s No. 5 most popular movie of all time. Released in December 2023, Sam Esmail’s apocalyptic thriller registered 121 million views. Heart of Stone, the Gal Gadot-led action thriller, came in second with 109.6 million views, followed by Leo (96 million), Nowhere (86.2 million), and The Out-Laws (83.8 million).

One Piece, the popular manga series’ live-action adaptation, dominated the most-watched list’s TV side with 71.6 million views. Behind One Piece was Dear Child (52.5 million), the German thriller about a mysterious woman discovered after being missing for years, and Who Is Erin Carter? (50.1 million), the British thriller starring Evin Ahmad in the titular role. Lupin part 3 (49.7 million) and The Witcher season 3 (47.9 million) rounded out the top five.

It’s important to note that the report lists the number of hours per season for TV shows. For example, Suits season 1 garnered 26.9 million views. However, add up the viewership for all nine seasons of Suits and it surpasses One Piece and Leave the World Behind.

Luffy and the Straw Hats Crew standing together in a forest in Netflix's One Piece. — Netflix

Popular Netflix originals racked up impressive total viewership numbers in 2023, including Wednesday (98 million), Red Notice (62 million), and Squid Game (25 million). Overall, people watched 183 billion hours of Netflix in 2023, with 90 billion hours coming in the second half.

What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report, with the weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists, continue to pull back the curtain on Netflix’s viewership numbers and showcase what’s hot, and what’s not, on the streaming service.

Click here to download What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report.

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