The 10 Most-Watched Netflix Shows of 2023, Ranked by Hours Viewed
When Netflix released its first What We Watched engagement report in December 2023, it finally put hard numbers behind the shows everyone was talking about that year. The top title was The Night Agent, Shawn Ryan’s conspiracy thriller, which racked up 812.1 million hours viewed in the first half of 2023 alone. The report covered more than 18,000 titles and roughly 99% of all viewing on the platform during that six-month window, and Netflix has kept publishing the same breakdown twice a year since.
Below is the definitive list of the 10 most-watched shows on Netflix during the January through June 2023 reporting period, ranked by total hours viewed. Hours viewed is Netflix’s own metric, calculated as total watch time divided by runtime, and it is the only first-party viewership number the company discloses. Keep in mind that a short season released in January has a natural advantage over a long season released in June, so the list rewards both quality and timing.
How Netflix Counts a “Most-Watched” Show
Hours viewed is a blunt instrument. A binge-ready 10-episode season of an hour-long drama can pile up viewing time much faster than a tight six-episode limited series, even if more subscribers actually finished the shorter show. Netflix publishes hours alongside runtime and release date so readers can make that apples-to-apples adjustment themselves. For the 2023 mid-year report specifically, every title below had been available on the service for at least 28 days by the cutoff date, which is Netflix’s standard measurement window.
One more caveat worth knowing: the first What We Watched report excluded a handful of licensed titles whose rights agreements blocked disclosure. For the full-year 2023 and every later report, that gap narrowed and the raw data set has grown steadily more complete.
The 10 Most-Watched Shows on Netflix, First Half of 2023
1. The Night Agent (Season 1) — 812,100,000 hours
Release date: March 23, 2023. Shawn Ryan’s adaptation of Matthew Quirk’s novel follows low-level FBI agent Peter Sutherland, who is suddenly pulled into a White House conspiracy after answering an emergency call from a panicked software engineer. The 10-episode first season became the fastest Netflix show to cross the 200 million viewing hours mark and was renewed for a second season within a week of launch.
2. Ginny & Georgia (Season 2) — 665,100,000 hours
Release date: January 5, 2023. The follow-up to the 2021 mother-daughter dramedy benefited from a two-year build-up of fans and a January release that gave it the full six months of the reporting window. Season 2 deepened the Boston flashback storyline and set up the third season Netflix greenlit in May 2023.
3. The Glory (Season 1) — 622,800,000 hours
Release date: Part 1 on December 30, 2022; Part 2 on March 10, 2023. Song Hye-kyo stars in Kim Eun-sook’s brutal Korean revenge drama about a bullied high school student who spends her adult life methodically dismantling the lives of her former tormentors. The split release meant both halves landed inside the reporting window, and the show became the first non-English Netflix series to hit the platform’s global top 10 for 16 consecutive weeks.
4. Wednesday (Season 1) — 507,700,000 hours
Release date: November 23, 2022. Tim Burton’s Addams Family spin-off continued to pull massive engagement into 2023 thanks to a TikTok-driven second wave of discovery. By the end of 2023 the season had crossed 1.7 billion lifetime viewing hours across both reporting periods. Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams remains one of the most-watched single performances in Netflix history.
5. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story — 503,000,000 hours
Release date: May 4, 2023. Shonda Rhimes’s Bridgerton prequel hit these numbers in under two months, making it the highest hours-per-day performer on the list. India Amarteifio and Arsema Thomas carried the young timeline while Golda Rosheuvel returned as the older Queen Charlotte.
6. You (Season 4) — 440,600,000 hours
Release date: Part 1 on February 9, 2023; Part 2 on March 9, 2023. The Joe Goldberg saga relocated to London for its fourth outing, leaning into a locked-room murder mystery format before the final reveal. Netflix used the same two-part drop strategy it had tested with Ozark and Money Heist.
7. La Reina del Sur (Season 3) — 429,600,000 hours
Release date: December 30, 2022. The third season of Kate del Castillo’s narco saga is the highest-ranked Spanish-language entry on the list and demonstrated the staying power of Telemundo co-productions on the platform. The 2023 numbers captured a full six months of post-launch viewing.
8. Outer Banks (Season 3) — 402,500,000 hours
Release date: February 23, 2023. The Pogues’ treasure hunt moved to the Caribbean for its third season, and Netflix confirmed a fourth and fifth season almost immediately after the engagement numbers started rolling in.
9. Ginny & Georgia (Season 1) — 302,100,000 hours
Release date: February 24, 2021. The Netflix “halo effect” put the first season back in the top 10 nearly two years after launch, driven entirely by new viewers catching up before diving into the January 2023 second season. It is the only pre-2022 release on the list.
10. FUBAR (Season 1) — 266,200,000 hours
Release date: May 25, 2023. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first scripted television lead earned a spot on the mid-year list despite only being available for about five weeks before the reporting cutoff. Netflix has since renewed the spy comedy for a second season with Schwarzenegger and Monica Barbaro returning.
Quick Reference: Hours Viewed vs. Release Timing
| Rank | Title | Hours Viewed | Release Date | Seasons Available in H1 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Night Agent S1 | 812.1M | March 23, 2023 | 1 |
| 2 | Ginny & Georgia S2 | 665.1M | January 5, 2023 | 1 |
| 3 | The Glory S1 | 622.8M | December 30, 2022 | 1 |
| 4 | Wednesday | 507.7M | November 23, 2022 | 1 |
| 5 | Queen Charlotte | 503.0M | May 4, 2023 | 1 (limited) |
| 6 | You S4 | 440.6M | February 9, 2023 | 1 |
| 7 | La Reina del Sur S3 | 429.6M | December 30, 2022 | 1 |
| 8 | Outer Banks S3 | 402.5M | February 23, 2023 | 1 |
| 9 | Ginny & Georgia S1 | 302.1M | February 24, 2021 | 1 |
| 10 | FUBAR S1 | 266.2M | May 25, 2023 | 1 |
What Was Missing From the Report
A few high-profile titles viewers expected to see on this list did not appear, and the reason is usually licensing. Co-produced acquisitions, certain documentaries, and a handful of international titles were excluded from the first report because their distribution contracts did not permit public viewership disclosure. Series like Suits, which exploded on Netflix in the summer of 2023, fell in the second half of the year and therefore show up on the full-year 2023 report rather than this one. Anyone tracking the most current list can pull the latest breakdown directly from Netflix’s biannual engagement reports, which the company now publishes on its Tudum investor site every June and December.
How to See What Is Trending on Netflix Right Now
If you are less interested in the historical list and more interested in what is performing today, Netflix updates its global top 10 every Tuesday. On any device running the Netflix app, open the main menu and tap Top 10 to see the current week’s rankings for your country, split into TV and film categories. The web version at the Top 10 page on Netflix’s Tudum site breaks the same data down by 93 countries and a dozen language tiers, so you can compare how a series like The Glory performed in Korea versus how it did globally.
Bottom Line
The first What We Watched report confirmed what the Netflix social-media buzz machine had already telegraphed: The Night Agent was the surprise smash of early 2023, Wednesday’s momentum did not stop in its launch window, and Korean dramas continue to punch well above their weight in global viewing hours. For the most current engagement figures and future editions of this list, bookmark Netflix’s Tudum site and check back each June and December when the next tranche of data drops.