If “best” means strongest audience approval, Nimona and Society of the Snow are two well-supported Netflix picks from 2023: Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcornmeter showed them at 90% and 88%, respectively, in a 2026 snapshot. But that is not the same as being the most watched. This guide uses Rotten Tomatoes audience scores to identify viewer-approved examples, and keeps Netflix viewing figures separate as a measure of popularity—not satisfaction.
How to read a viewer-led Netflix list
There is no single universal “actual viewers” score. Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcornmeter reports the share of users who rated a film positively; IMDb uses a weighted score out of ten. Neither is interchangeable with Netflix’s viewing totals or Top 10 charts, which show how much people watched rather than whether they liked a film.
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The examples below are not a definitive ranking of every Netflix movie released in 2023. They are a small, evidence-backed set spanning different genres. Rotten Tomatoes scores and rating counts can change, so the figures are labeled with the platform and the date they were checked. Netflix availability can also vary by country.
2023 Netflix movies with strong audience scores
Nimona: animated adventure with an emotional core
Rotten Tomatoes showed Nimona at a 90% Popcornmeter from more than 2,500 ratings when accessed in 2026. The 2023 action-adventure animation is rated PG, and the page lists it as streaming on Netflix. Its audience summary highlights the emotional story and themes, making it a strong option for viewers looking for imaginative, broadly accessible animation. See the current Rotten Tomatoes score and film details.
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#1 Best Overall
- Blu-ray
- Multiple Formats, Blu-ray, AC-3
- English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
- 2
- 103
Society of the Snow: a harrowing survival drama
Rotten Tomatoes showed Society of the Snow at an 88% Popcornmeter from more than 1,000 ratings when accessed in 2026. The 2023 Spanish-language film is an R-rated drama, adventure and biography, and the page lists it as streaming on Netflix. It depicts the 1972 crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 in the Andes and the survivors’ extreme struggle to stay alive. Its subject matter is disturbing; this is an intense survival story, not light viewing. See the current Rotten Tomatoes score and film details.
A popular Netflix movie that divided viewers
Leave the World Behind: high viewership, low audience score
Leave the World Behind is a useful reminder that a hit is not necessarily a crowd-pleaser. Rotten Tomatoes showed the film at a 36% Popcornmeter from more than 10,000 ratings when accessed in 2026, while its Tomatometer stood at 73% from 159 critic reviews. The thriller follows a family whose vacation is disrupted by two strangers and news of a mysterious cyberattack. It arrived on Netflix on December 8, 2023. Check the current audience and critic scores.
Netflix viewing data tells a different story: Netflix’s 2024 engagement figures, reported by Axios, say the film was watched 121 million times in December 2023 and was the service’s most-viewed movie of that year. The contrast is instructive: its reported reach was enormous even as its current Rotten Tomatoes audience score is low.
What Netflix viewing figures can—and cannot—tell you
Netflix’s charts and engagement reports measure viewing, not approval. The global Top 10 for December 25–31, 2023, placed Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire first with 34 million weekly views and Leave the World Behind second with 14.6 million. That is one week’s global chart, not an audience-vote ranking. Netflix notes that some titles may not be available in every region and that Top 10 lists are offered only in selected countries and territories. View Netflix’s Top 10 lists.
Rank #3
Netflix’s 2024 engagement data, as reported by Axios, also listed these most-viewed films for 2023:
| Film | Reported views | What the figure represents |
|---|---|---|
| Leave the World Behind | 121 million | Netflix viewing figure for December 2023; reported by Axios in 2024 |
| Heart of Stone | 109.6 million | Netflix viewing figure for 2023; reported by Axios in 2024 |
| Leo | 96 million | Netflix viewing figure for 2023; reported by Axios in 2024 |
| Nowhere | 86.2 million | Netflix viewing figure for 2023; reported by Axios in 2024 |
| The Out-Laws | 83.8 million | Netflix viewing figure for 2023; reported by Axios in 2024 |
These totals indicate viewing, not positive reactions, and the article reporting them does not make them comparable to Rotten Tomatoes percentages. Axios’s account of Netflix’s 2023 engagement report explains the figures.
Rank #4
A separate Netflix report covered the first half of 2023. Netflix said it included 18,000 titles, represented 99% of all content viewed on the platform and recorded nearly 100 billion hours viewed from January through June. For that period, The Mother led movies with 249.9 million viewing hours. Those are report-scope and viewing-hour figures, not audience ratings. Read Axios’s coverage of the January–June 2023 report.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Choosing the right film for your kind of “best”
- For the strongest audience approval among these examples: start with Nimona or Society of the Snow, while remembering that their Popcornmeter figures are live snapshots.
- For a lighter, broadly accessible choice: Nimona is the PG animated adventure in this group.
- For a serious historical survival story: Society of the Snow has a strong audience score, but its subject and intensity call for caution.
- For an example of popularity without matching audience approval: Leave the World Behind was widely watched, despite its low current Popcornmeter.
Netflix Tudum’s 2023 slate article describes planned releases and genre breadth, rather than retrospectively ranking films by audience reception. Likewise, a list sorted by IMDb users’ rating activity would reflect a different measure from a list sorted by IMDb score. A genuinely viewer-led ranking should name its platform, metric and date instead of combining unlike numbers into one score. See Netflix Tudum’s 2023 movie slate.
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