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2023 set the stage for many developments in the streaming industry as streaming companies merged and consolidated their content libraries, all while trying to keep new content in production amidst the SAG-AFTRA strikes. Despite the road bumps, we’ve seen a year full of successful releases at the box office and in our living rooms.

With that in mind, we’ve put together a rundown of the year’s most popular shows and movies to help us get a sense of what trends have been successful on streaming platforms this 2023. We’ll also have a look at how these trends and industry developments will shape 2024.

2023’s Most Popular Shows and Movies

The Most Popular Shows of 2023

• Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Netflix)
• Beef (Netflix)
• Succession (HBO Max)
• You (Netflix)
• The Last of Us (HBO Max)
• Ahsoka (Disney+)
• One Piece (Netflix)

The Most Popular Movies of 2023

• Barbie (Apple TV, Prime Video)
• Oppenheimer (Apple TV, Prime Video)
• The Little Mermaid (Disney+)
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Apple TV, Netflix)
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Apple TV, Peacock)
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Apple TV, Netflix)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Disney+)

Adaptations make up this year’s biggest hits

According to ExpressVPN, the year’s biggest shows and movies were adaptations of existing IPs. The Last of Us became the most watched HBO Max show in Europe and Latin America according to a Warner Brothers’ earnings report for Q1 2023. In that same quarter, the company reported $50 million in profit, a welcome change from $227 million in losses from the previous year.

Netflix had a good year with You, originally a thriller novel series, and One Piece, a live-action adaptation of an anime and manga series. One Piece became one of Q3’s biggest shows and brought in 21.86 hours worth of views in the U.S. alone.

On the movie side, The Little Mermaid premiered on Disney+ and gained 16M views in just five days.

When it’s not adaptations, it’s spin-offs

In July, Ahsoka gained 14M views for the release of its first episode on Disney+. The show, set in the Star Wars world, was an instant hit in the fandom. Similarly, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, a spin-off of last year’s hit Netflix original Bridgerton, held the number one spot on Nielsen’s streaming rankings for the week of its release.

2023 stuck to recognizable IPs

Not every hit this year was a direct adaptation or spin-off, but many shows and movies we’ve seen are still based on well-known IPs.

Barbie banked on the star power of Mattel’s legendary doll. The same goes for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, based on a Nintendo game franchise. Even Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which may be less familiar to some viewers, is still based on an extremely popular tabletop role-playing game.

Comfort shows become platforms’ trump cards

While licensing for classics like Suits, Grey’s Anatomy, Gilmore Girls, and NCIS cost a pretty penny, they have kept Netflix in Nielsen’s top ten rankings of the most watched acquired shows throughout most of the year. HBO Max has found similar luck with Friends, especially with the show receiving a viewership surge following the death of cast member Matthew Perry.

We’ll be spoiled for choice in 2024

As of Q4 2023, we anticipate the release of Avatar: The Last Airbender, a new season of House of the Dragon, and Dune: Part Two. But we’re not just getting more shows and movies in 2024, we’re also getting better options.

You can stop worrying about Netflix’s account crackdowns. The truth is we’ll be spoiled for choice next year. 2023 saw the rise of mergers between streaming companies, with HBO Max and Discovery+ kicking off the trend. Platforms such as Disney+ and Paramount+ have announced plans to consolidate their parent companies’ streaming platforms into one app.

In-house production cost Netflix $16.7 billion in 2022, but it also gave Netflix a varied content library that viewers choose to stick to. The mergers and consolidations we’ve seen in 2023 are partly driven by the need to create bigger content libraries that can compete with Netflix’s own.

All-in-all, the steep competition between platforms is a win for viewers who can look forward to more significant content libraries available for the price of one or two subscriptions. Plus, with more resources come bigger budgets, not just for new shows, but also new licenses to stream your favorite shows across multiple streaming platforms.