Even Wikipedia has “Barbie” listed as a most-read topic, coming in at No. 13 with more than 10 million pageviews (the page for J. Robert Oppenheimer came in at No. 7). Wikipedia has a page for “Barbenheimer” — it was that popular.
And what TV series had the attention of Wikipedia users? It was “The Last of Us,” with nearly 20 million pageviews.
Through a tumultuous economy, it was women who kept us entertained and uplifted: Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour,” which started in Nov. 2022 and ran through most of 2023, generated an estimated $4.6 billion in U.S. consumer spending, according to QuestionPro. Swift’s tour economic impact was larger than the GDP of 50 countries — concertgoers spent about $1,300 per show, QuestionPro said.
The superstar’s impact on the world’s financials is dubbed “Swiftenomics.”
Television watchers were disappointed with the lack of new sitcoms and dramas in 2023 as writers and actors strikes impacted the creation of new episodes, putting a pause on new seasons. Reality TV stepped up to entertain the masses, with “Vanderpump Rules” seeing an average of 14.3 million social views per week in May because of some cheating drama, dubbed “Scandoval,” according to Tubular (named for actor Tom Sandoval, one of the “Vanderpump Rules” costars ... and the alleged cheater).
Overall, reality television viewing climbed by 55% in 2023.
Video podcasts continued their rise in popularity with The Joe Rogan Experience holding on to the top spot for the last four years, including in 2023. His longer-form clips are on YouTube and in January amassed 19.1 million minutes watched there and on Facebook.
Rogan’s podcast is focused on current events, politics, sports and more.
Taking the No. 2 spot was “Call Her Daddy,” which posts more short-form video clips on TikTok. It’s described as a female empowerment pod, with some saying it’s more like female locker-room talk.
For children, the star entertainer was Ms. Rachel of “Toddler Learning Videos.” Her YouTube and Facebook presence is big — Ms. Rachel’s content’s “minutes watched” in 2023 hit 5.7 billion, rivaling many long-standing content creators of children’s entertainment.
Ms. Rachel has more than 7 million YouTube subscribers.
“Ms. Rachel focuses on posting longer, quality videos rather than posting a high quantity of videos,” according to Tubular.
Females ruled sports content in 2023, too: Women’s March Madness broke TV audience records and women’s soccer saw 1.4 billion YouTube views (as of Dec. 11). A pregnant Rihanna performed the Super Bowl half-time show, and that spurred her Fenty Beauty products brand to see huge increases in TikTok viewership (+278% on Super Bowl Sunday weekend).
Music trends, according to Spotify’s “2023 Wrapped,” showed hip hop and rap artists ruling the Top 10 artists list. Most listened-to on the streaming app globally include Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Drake, Peso Pluma, Travis Scott and more. (Though it was again Taylor Swift in the No. 1 position).
But let’s give it to Miley Cyrus, who is No. 1 on Spotify’s “Top 10 Songs Globally” list with the record-setting song “Flowers.” That was followed by “Kill Bill” by SZA and “As It Was” by Harry Styles.
Back to sports: Perhaps unwillingly to some fans, one of the largest entertainment news stories of 2023 was Swift’s budding relationship with Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs. The “Time Person of the Year” being present at his football games has boosted the team’s jersey and ticket sales and overall viewership, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
And video games were a big deal this past year, with five Google says were most-searched in 2023. That includes (in order) “Hogwarts Legacy,” “The Last of Us,” “Connections,” “Battlegrounds Mobile India,” and “Starfield.”
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