The results are in: this is what Americans streamed in 2023

Last year, studios continued to scale back their spending on new TV shows. A pair of strikes effectively shut down Hollywood for several months, disrupting new releases of television shows and films.

And yet Americans continued to stream.

The time people watched streaming services from their TVs last year increased 21 percent from 2022, according to a year-end overview of streaming trends by Nielsen, the media research firm. There were nearly a million television shows and movies for Americans to choose from on more than 90 streaming services.

What were they looking at? Lots of repetitions, as it turns out.

Here's a look at some trends.

'Suits' best 'Stranger Things'

It is well established that “Suits,” the USA Network legal procedural that aired from 2011 to 2019, was an unexpected streaming hit last year. Netflix subscribers started devouring it over the summer. They broke records in the process.

'Suits,' with 57.7 billion minutes of viewing time in 2023, eclipsed both 'The Office' in 2020 and 'Stranger Things' in 2022 (when the fourth season was released) as the most-streamed show on television sets in a single year, according to Nielsen . (The research firm began releasing annual figures in 2020.)

“Suits” was likely new to most viewers who watched it on Netflix, said Brian Fuhrer, senior vice president of product at Nielsen.

“For all intents and purposes, 'Suits' was a Netflix original because that viewership certainly didn't watch it on the US,” he said. “If it lands on this very broad footprint on Netflix, it might as well be an original. ”

The show's influence can last for years. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos recently speculated that networks and studios would start ordering “a lot of lawyer shows” because of the show's popularity.

“Cocomelon” has enjoyed the No. 1 position for children's shows each of the past two years.

Not anymore. 'Bluey' is now the king of children's shows, with 43.9 billion minutes streamed in 2023, easily outperforming 'Cocomelon'.

Children's programs depend on a near-endless diet of repeated viewings, and Mr. Fuhrer said there was likely “a certain degree of burnout” with “Cocomelon.”

There is a caveat: “Bluey” is more popular with slightly older children — ages six and up, Mr. Fuhrer said. “Cocomelon” is more popular with children 5 years old or younger. The catch? Nielsen only tracks viewers who are 2 years or older.

'Friends' have become more popular?

It's no secret that older network shows are popular on streaming. Year after year, shows like 'NCIS' and 'Grey's Anatomy' rank on Nielsen's most-streamed lists. (And they all benefit from having hundreds of episodes, increasing total viewing time.)

But the share of older shows increased even more last year. For example, “Friends” had 14 billion minutes of streaming time in 2022. But last year the show, which streams on Max, was streamed for 25 billion minutes. (The series exploded in popularity after the unexpected death of one of its stars, Matthew Perry, in October.)

Original shows were less popular. Last year, the top ten most-watched original programs accounted for 134 billion minutes of viewing time, a 32 percent decline from the top ten original programs in 2022.

Studios are once again freely renting TV shows to Netflix after years of withholding content from their own streaming services, and that was also a factor, Mr. Fuhrer said. Warner Bros. licensed “Young Sheldon” to Netflix in November, and the show quickly began pulling in big numbers.

And there's more to come: The HBO classic 'Sex and the City' is coming to Netflix in April.

'Ted Lasso' and 'Moana' were hits

Apple TV+ has a smaller footprint than many streaming platforms, but still has bragging rights.

The final season of “Ted Lasso,” which was released in 2023 and is widely believed to be the show's final season, was the No. 1 original streaming show, with 16.9 billion minutes streamed. Mr. Fuhrer said the running time of the episodes, which were mostly an hour in the third season last year, played a role.

Netflix series like “The Night Agent,” “Ginny & Georgia,” “Virgin River” and “Love Is Blind” reached top spots on the Nielsen list, as did Prime Video's “Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan” and the Disney+ “Star Wars'. ' series 'The Mandalorian.'

The most streamed movie in 2023 was Disney's 2016 film “Moana.” The film took the top spot for the first time, surpassing 2022's top performer, “Encanto,” another Disney film, which was No. 2 last year.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” a 2023 film streaming on Netflix and Peacock, took third place. 'Elemental' on Disney+ was number 4.